‘Extraordinary’ 4,000-year-old Egyptian skull may show signs of attempts to treat cancer

We know from ancient texts that the Ancient Egyptians had extraordinary medical skills for their time: they could identify, describe, and treat illnesses and injuries, make dentures, and fill teeth. They could not cure other diseases, such as cancer, but they may have tried to do so.

To investigate the limitations of traumatic and oncological treatment in Ancient Egypt, an international team of researchers studied two human skulls, each dating back several thousand years.

“We found that while the ancient Egyptians were able to cope with complex skull fractures, cancer was still at the forefront of medical knowledge,” said Tatiana Tondini, a researcher at the University of Tübingen and lead author of the study published in 2010. The cutting edge of medicine.

“This discovery is unique evidence of how ancient Egyptian medicine sought to address and study cancer more than 4,000 years ago,” added lead study author Professor Edgardo Camaros, a paleopathologist at the University of Santiago de Compostela. “This is a surprising new perspective for understanding the history of medicine.”

Remove the cancer

“We wanted to learn about the role of cancer in the past, how widespread this disease was in ancient times, and how ancient societies interacted with this pathology,” Tondini explained. To do so, the researchers looked at two skulls kept in the Duckworth Collection at the University of Cambridge. Skull and mandible 236, dating to 2687-2345 BC, belonged to a man aged between 30 and 35 years old. Skull E270, dating to 663-343 BC, belonged to a woman over 50 years old.

In skull 236, microscopic examination revealed a large lesion consistent with the excessive tissue destruction known as a tumor, plus approximately 30 small, round metastatic lesions scattered throughout the skull.

What surprised the researchers was the discovery of cuts around these lesions, likely made with a sharp object such as a metal instrument. “When we first looked at the cuts under the microscope, we couldn’t believe what we were seeing,” Tondini said.

“It appears that the ancient Egyptians performed some kind of surgical intervention in relation to the presence of cancer cells, demonstrating that ancient Egyptian medicine also carried out experimental treatments and medical explorations related to cancer,” explained co-author Professor Albert Isidro, a surgical oncologist at Sagrat Kor University Hospital who specializes in Egyptology.

Ancient Cancer

Skull E270 also shows large lesions consistent with cancerous tumours leading to bone destruction, which may indicate that although modern lifestyles, aging and environmental carcinogens increase the risk of cancer, it was a common pathology in the past.

Skull E270 has two healed scars from trauma, one of which appears to be from a close-range act of violence with a sharp weapon. These healed scars may mean that the individual received some kind of medical treatment and may have survived as a result.

But these wounds are rare on women, with most violent injuries found on men. “Was this woman involved in any kind of warfare activity?” Tondini asked. “If so, we need to rethink the role of women in the past and how they were active participants in ancient conflicts.”

But the researchers also said studying the remains poses certain challenges, making it difficult to make definitive statements, especially since the remains are often incomplete and their clinical history is unknown. “In archaeology, we are dealing with fragmented parts of the past, which complicates a precise approach,” Isidro noted.

“This study contributes to a shift in perspective and lays a promising foundation for future research in the field of paleo-oncology, but further research will be needed to understand how ancient societies dealt with cancer,” Kamaros concluded.