In 1761, Giovanni Battista Morgagni, an Italian anatomist, published his greatest work ever, the…

In 1761, Giovanni Battista Morgagni, an Italian anatomist, published his greatest work ever, the “De Sedibus et causis morborum per anatomen indagatis,” which translates to “The Seats and Causes of Diseases Investigated by Anatomy.” It included new courses on medicines and anatomic science. This work of Giovanni included the description of pancreatic cancer, but since a microscopic evaluation was not possible in those times, the diagnosis was uncertain.

In 1858, Jacob Mendez Da Costa, an American physician, studied Giovanni’s work, conducted the first microscopic evaluation of adenocarcinoma (later named pancreatic cancer), and identified it as a true disease. In 1898, Alessandro Codivilla, an Italian surgeon, operated on a tumor in the pancreas; however, the patient did not survive. William Stewart Halsted from Johns Hopkins Hospital did the first successful resection of cancer.