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Medical Historians

Posted: Thu March 9th, 2017, 7:27 pm
by Rowan
Does anyone know of an medical historians or is anyone here a medical historian? I'm trying to find out exactly what ulcerous carcinoma is, but search engines are redirecting me to ulcerative colitis. Is that the same thing?

Re: Medical Historians

Posted: Thu March 9th, 2017, 11:45 pm
by Mythica
No, they are not the same thing, carcinoma is cancer. It might be similar/the same as this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marjolin's_ulcer or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squamous_cell_carcinoma or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basal-cell_carcinoma

Ulcerative colitis is a gastro-intestinal disease that causes ulcers in the colon. Nothing to do with cancer.

Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional or medical historian. My mom is a nurse, and gastro-intestinal diseases run in my family so I'm familiar with UC.

Re: Medical Historians

Posted: Fri March 10th, 2017, 1:24 am
by MLE (Emily Cotton)
I needed a cancerous skin ulcer in my 16th-century Spanish character, something that would be visible to others at need (so I put it on the chest, where he could also hide it) but steadily debilitating, like going into the lungs. Did some research, and bingo! Kaposi's Sarcoma. First documented in southern Mediterranean men circa 1500, perticularly those of Sephardic (Jewish) extraction.

Re: Medical Historians

Posted: Fri March 10th, 2017, 10:38 pm
by Amanda
Kaposi's Sarcoma is also dominant in HIV+ patients.

The common garden variety basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is a skin cancer that ulcerates, and has another lovely name - Rodent Ulcer - as its like it is constantly nibbled away. However, BCCs typically only locally invade, and they don't become metastatic.

Re: Medical Historians

Posted: Fri March 10th, 2017, 10:43 pm
by Amanda
However, at that time, diagnosis would not have been very specific. Microscopes were only in their infancy, so all diagnosis would have been via clinical examination.

BTW, I work in pathology, so medical history interests me, though i haven't studied it formally.