The Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus, dated to 3,000-2,500 B.C., and possibly attributable to Imhotep, the Egyptian physician-architect, provided authentic accounts of breast cancer. A case was deemed incurable if the disease was “cool to touch, bulging and spread all over the breast”.

In ancient Greece, a divinity was exhorted to offer relief from breast maladies, as evidenced by votive offerings in the shape of breasts in Greek temples that housed Asclepius, the god of medicine.