The world’s oldest case of breast cancer

Research carried out on the remains of a woman found in the necropolis of Qubbet el-Hawa in Egypt have revealed that she had breast cancer.

“The study of her remains shows the typical destructive damage provoked by the extension of a breast cancer as a metastasis,” he said in a statement on Tuesday.

Despite being one of the world’s leading causes of death today, cancer is virtually absent in archaeological records compared to other diseases – which has given rise to the idea that cancers are mainly attributable to modern lifestyles and to people living for longer.

But the finding, along with evidence reported last year by British researchers of metastatic cancer in a 3,000-year-old skeleton found in a tomb in modern Sudan, suggests cancer was around in the Nile Valley in ancient times.

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Story: Reuters | Photo: Wikimedia Commons