Oldest mummy with prostate cancer found
♦ Mummy M1 is the oldest Ancient Egyptian with prostate cancer.
Scientists conclude this 2,250 years after M1's death. The mummy is not the oldest man with prostate cancer ever found. The 2,700-year-old skeleton of a Russian king was also once found, and he too turned out to have had prostate cancer. Mummy M1 is therefore the second-oldest man with prostate cancer ever found and the oldest Egyptian with the disease.
♦ Scan
The researchers discovered the cancer after thoroughly scanning M1.
The mummy was found to have multiple small tumors near his pelvis and lumbar vertebrae. Tumors were also found in his upper arms and legs. The scientists therefore conclude that it is a metastatic form of prostate cancer.
♦ Modern disease
The research into M1 cancer can help scientists study the roots of cancer more closely. For instance, researchers have in the past sometimes claimed that cancer is a modern disease that was rare in the past. Researcher Carlos Prates, who also studied M1, disagrees. According to him, cancer was also common in the past. However, because it has only recently become possible to detect small tumors (with a diameter of one millimeter or less), researchers would have overlooked a great many cases of cancer in the past.
There were plenty of carcinogenic substances in the past as well. Soot from stoves, for example. “I think cancer was quite common in the past,” states researcher Albert Zink. “Much more common than we have seen.”
Source:HISTORIA
Caroline Kraaijvanger