Researchers found evidence of the disease in skulls thousands of years old. One of them revealed the first physical evidence of a possible treatment.
A group of scientists discovered lesions caused by tumors in two Egyptian skulls more than 4,000 years old. They belonged to the Duckworth Collection of the University of Cambridgein United Kingdomand reveals that humans faced the cancer and they looked for the cure already in the time of the ancient Egyptians.
One of the skulls, which dates back to about 4,600 years oldshowed signs of brain cancer and its treatment. In that sense, the researchers continued that at that time the person was cirurgic intervention, either with the intention of removing the tumor or after the person’s death to understand the condition.
The research that revealed the existence of cancer in Ancient Egypt
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The study was led by Edgard Camaros, paleopathologist at the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain. He along with Tatiana Tondinifrom the University of Tübingen in Germany, Albert Isidrofrom the Sacred Heart University Hospital in Spain and the other authors, found cut marks on the edges of the skullwhich indicated that they had been made with a metal tool.
According to The New York Times, Camarós revealed that at that moment “there was an uncomfortable silence in the room, because we knew what we had just discovered.” Using a microscope, they saw dozens of lesions that previous researchers had linked to brain cancer metastasis.
In the study, which was published in the journal Frontiers in Medicine, scientists suggest that the Egyptians studied the disease through surgery. This discovery not only provides scientific information about medicine at that time, but also reveals the humanity’s attempts to treat cancer. “It’s as old as time. Even dinosaurs suffered from cancer,” said Camarós.
The paleontologist and his colleagues hope that studying cancer over the years can reveal information about the treatment that must be designed against the disease. Egyptian medicine was very advanced, even, in a document written 3,600 years ago that bore the name of ‘Edwin Smith Papyrus’, it refers to “a serious illness” for which “there was no treatment”, which researchers relate to a cancer case.
Evidence of a possible cancer treatment
Camarós’ team also reports in the study that they found evidence of a successful treatment for an injury to another skull, this one 2,600 years old. Casey L. Kirkpatricka bioarchaeologist and postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany, said they found the first physical evidence of a possible cancer treatment by the ancient Egyptians.
In turn, he indicated that the discovery reminds us that cancer is not a “modern disease,” while Camarós stated that it offers scientists a new perspective on what to look for. They even plan to look for evidence of this nature in ancient sites in Kenya.
Source: Ambito
