system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
How did we treat cancer in the past (pre 1900) Did we even know about it?

How did we go about dealing with cancer before radiation treatment. Did we even know that cancer is what was killing some people? When did we learn it was cancer causing the deaths?
gpt
They knew about it.  They had no real treatment other than to cut it out.  They wouldn't discover it until it caused problems so usually too late. Leukemia is called white blood because that's how the person would die. So many defective white blood cells that the blood literally turned white. All they could really do was to give it a name.