Health care for cancer in 1841?

Question:I have recently received the death certificate for an ancestor who died in 1841 which cites cause of death as 'cancer of the breast'. Death was registered by the resident surgeon and she attended the Nottingham County hospital some miles from her place of residence. I thought that this was quite strange as a/ this kind of care would I assume be very expensive and b/ it would suggest she was having some kind of surgery for her condition which I did not believe was widespread at the time (Wikipedia suggested mastectomy was uncommon til the 1880s).
Does anyone have any idea how likely this kind of care would be for someone of limited means or is it likely someone would be having to fund some kind of private care for her?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: I have recently received the death certificate for an ancestor who died in 1841 which cites cause of death as 'cancer of the breast'. Death was registered by the resident surgeon and she attended the Nottingham County hospital some miles from her place of residence. I thought that this was quite strange as a/ this kind of care would I assume be very expensive and b/ it would suggest she was having some kind of surgery for her condition which I did not believe was widespread at the time (Wikipedia suggested mastectomy was uncommon til the 1880s).
Does anyone have any idea how likely this kind of care would be for someone of limited means or is it likely someone would be having to fund some kind of private care for her?

Have a look at the link posted below, it's an amazing site,
http://rmhh.co.uk/medical.html I am sure you'll find the answer on there. I live in Nottingham, and I'm intrigued as to where this hospital was, it's one I haven't heard of. I suppose it could be the one that is now the Nottingham City hospital.
My husband's side of the family had two deaths through cancer, one dated 1860 and the other 1863, the first one was treated at home and the second one in hospital, both may have been stomach cancer, that's how it was put on the death certificates, and that they one might have had it for 6 months and the other a year. It doesn't say what treatment they received.
Have a look at the link anyway, if it is a Nottinghamshire UK based question, I am a member of the family history society, and have access to records such as marriages, baptisms and burials, just email me if you need any information from those records.

it was more than often that in those pre x-ray days that it would never have been detected until death.

More than likely she died and it was found in the autopsy.

It is unlikely it was diagnosed before hand.

In addition to what Mike said, it is also that in some cases, if left untreated and the person does not die real fast, cancer can, for lack of a better word, "rot" away at a person so that the "rotting" area would become obvious, making diagnosis of cancer of that area a logical diagnosis. But still, there would have been little they could have done in regards to treatment.

It's likely she received "palliative care", which basically means they made her comfortable. That kind of care was free at most county or public hospitals back then because it was the place where even indigents went and laid in a huge ward to have basic needs met. No one wanted dying people laying on their doorstep.

She probably didn't have surgery. A breast tumor is visible from the outside (it looks like a huge stinky cauliflower at the end). The person usually dies from either metastasis or clots breaking off of the tumor. I once gave hospice care to a Christian Scientist who was dying of breast cancer. It was unpleasant changing her dressings, but she didn't die quickly. If your ancestor were lingering at home, it's very possible she was sent to a freebed hospital to save her family from watching her die.

Didn't they just shoot cancer patients back then?