Cancer ‘is purely man-made’ say scientists after finding almost no trace of disease in Egyptian mummiesBy Fiona Macrae
Cancer is a man-made disease, fuelled by the excesses of modern life, study of ancient remains from fossils to mummies has concluded.
A review of Egyptian mummies, fossil records dating back to dinosaurs and classical literature found tumours to be extremely rare until recent times, when factors from pollution to poor diet made life more toxic.
They discovered that the disease rate has risen dramatically since the Industrial Revolution, in particular childhood cancer – proving that the rise is not simply due to people living longer.
They believe that a better understanding of the origins of cancer could lead to new treatments for the disease which claims more than 150,000 lives a year in the UK alone.
Scientists found no signs of cancer in their extensive study of mummies apart from one isolated case
Michael Zimmerman, a visiting professor at Manchester University, said: ‘In an ancient society lacking surgical intervention, evidence of cancer should remain in all cases.
‘The virtual absence of malignancies in mummies must be interpreted as indicating their rarity in antiquity, indicating that cancer-causing factors are limited to societies affected by modern industrialisation.’
To trace cancer’s roots, Professor Zimmerman and colleague Rosalie David analysed possible references to the disease in classical literature and scrutinised signs in the fossil record and in mummified bodies.
Despite slivers of tissue from hundreds of Egyptian mummies being rehydrated and placed under the microscope, only one case of cancer has been confirmed.
This is despite experiments showing that tumours should be even better preserved by mummification than healthy tissues.
Dismissing the argument that the ancient Egyptians didn’t live long enough to develop cancer, the researchers pointed out that other age-related disease such as hardening of the arteries and brittle bones died occur.
Fossil evidence of cancer is also sparse, with scientific literature providing a few dozen, mostly disputed, examples in animal fossil, the journal Nature Reviews Cancer reports.
Even the study of thousands of Neanderthal bones has provided only one example of a possible cancer.
Evidence of cancer in ancient Egyptian texts is also ‘tenuous’ with cancer-like problems more likely to have been caused by leprosy or even varicose veins.
The ancient Greeks were probably the first to define cancer as a specific disease and to distinguish between benign and malignant tumours.
But Manchester professors said it was unclear if this signalled a real rise in the disease, or just a greater medical knowledge.
The 17th century provides the first descriptions of operations for breast and other cancers.
And the first reports in scientific literature of distinctive tumours only occurred in the past 200 years or so, including scrotal cancer in chimney sweeps in 1775 and nasal cancer in snuff users in 1761.
Professor David, who presented the findings to Professor Mike Richards, the UK’s cancer tsar and other oncologists at a conference earlier this year, said: ‘In industrialised societies, cancer is second only to cardiovascular disease as a cause of death. But in ancient times, it was extremely rare.
‘There is nothing in the natural environment that can cause cancer. So it has to be a man-made disease, down to pollution and changes to our diet and lifestyle.
‘The important thing about our study is that it gives a historical perspective to this disease. We can make very clear statements on the cancer rates in societies because we have a full overview. We have looked at millennia, not one hundred years, and have masses of data.
‘Yet again extensive ancient Egyptian data, along with other data from across the millennia, has given modern society a clear message – cancer is man-made and something that we can and should address.
Dr Rachel Thompson, of World Cancer Research Fund, said: ‘This research makes for very interesting reading.
‘About one in three people in the UK will get cancer so it is fairly commonplace in the modern world.
Scientists now say a healthy diet, regular physical activity and maintaining a healthy weight can prevent about a third of the most common cancers so perhaps our ancestors’ lifestyle reduced their risk from cancer.’…
Correlation does not equal causation. This an interesting read the invokes some good questions, but I don’t know if I agree that one can just dismiss the fact that many Egyptians didn’t live past 30-40 years of age. It seems that there is a lot of evidence that cancer is often an ‘age’ disease that starts cropping up once people survive past this age.
Another “funny” thing when they say that cancer was not so many years ago. In fact, he simply could not be diagnosed…
the Edwin Smith papyrus documents breast cancer treatment in ancient Egypt! It was written between 3000-1500 BC.
The Egyptian physicians had a sophisticated view of cancer medicine by that date – Hieroglyphic inscriptions and papyri manuscripts suggest that these ancient physicians were able to distinguish between benign and malignant tumors. They suggested that the surface tumors may be removed surgically much similar to the current medical practice. Compounds of barley, pigs ear and other indigenous materials were suggested as treatment for cancer of the stomach and the uterus. Other commonly dispensed medications included ointments, enemas, castor oil, suppositories, poultices and animal parts.