LONDON (Reuters) - British archaeologists have found what
they say is the world's oldest complete example of a human being
with metastatic cancer and hope it will offer new clues about
the now common and often fatal disease.
Researchers from Durham University and the British Museum
discovered the evidence of tumors that had developed and spread
throughout the body in a 3,000-year-old skeleton found in a tomb
in modern Sudan in 2013.
Analyzing the skeleton using radiography and a scanning
electron microscope, they managed to get clear imaging of
lesions on the bones which showed the cancer had spread to cause
tumors on the collarbone, shoulder blades, upper arms,
vertebrae, ribs, pelvis and thigh bones.
"Insights gained from archaeological human remains like
these can really help us to understand the evolution and history
of modern diseases," said Michaela Binder, a Durham PhD student
who led the research and excavated and examined the skeleton.
"Our analysis showed that the shape of the small lesions on
the bones can only have been caused by a soft tissue cancer . .
. though the exact origin is impossible to determine through the
Despite being one of the world's leading causes of death
today, cancer is virtually absent in archaeological records
compared to other diseases - and that has given rise to the idea
that cancers are mainly attributable to modern lifestyles and to
people living for longer.
According to the World Health Organization's cancer research
agency, new cancer cases rose to an estimated 14 million a year
in 2012, a figure seen rising to 22 million within 20 years.
Yet these new findings, scheduled to be published in the
Public Library of Science journal PLOS ONE on Monday, suggest
cancer is not only a modern disease, but was around in the Nile
Valley even in ancient times.
Binder said the discovery should help scientists explore the
underlying causes of cancer in ancient populations and give
fresh clues about the evolution of cancer in the past.
Ancient DNA analysis of skeletons and mummies with evidence
of cancer can be used to detect mutations in specific genes that
are known to be associated with particular types of cancer.
The skeleton is of an adult male estimated to be between 25
and 35 years old when he died. It was found at the
archaeological site of Amara West in northern Sudan, on the
Nile, 750 km (466 miles) downstream from the capital Khartoum.
The researchers said they could only speculate on what may
have caused of the young man's cancer, but it may have been a
result of environmental carcinogens such as smoke from wood
fires, or due to genetic factors, or from an infectious disease
such as schistosomiasis, which is caused by parasites.
Schistosomiasis would be a plausible explanation, they said,
since the disease has plagued inhabitants of Egypt and Nubia
since at least 1500 BC and is now recognized as a cause of
bladder cancer and breast cancer in men.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/IZdYOk PLOS ONE, March 2014.