LONDON (DPA): Scientists believe ancient Egyptians tried to understand and treat cancer more than 4,000 years ago. Researchers have found evidence of cutmarks on a skull around a large lesion thought to have been caused by a cancerous growth. They also found 30 smaller lesions across the skull, suggesting the cancer was spreading.
The skull belonged to a man who was around 30 to 35 when he died, the researchers said. They said the cutmarks are likely made with a sharp object, suggesting these ancient Egyptians may have tried to operate on the tumor. Tatiana Tondini, a researcher at the University of Tubingen in Germany, said: “When we first observed the cutmarks under the microscope, we could not believe what was in front of us.
” But Edgard Camaros, a palaeopathologist at the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain, said the surgical cutmarks might be from a medical autopsy to learn more about the disease after death. He said: “Both possibilities reveal a surgical intervention intimately related to the tumors – which is amazing.” “This finding is unique evidence of how ancient Egyptian medicine would have tried to deal with or explore cancer more than 4,000 years ago.
“This is an extraordinary new perspective in our understanding of the history of medicine.” The team said its research, published in Frontiers in Medicine, suggests that although cancer is often seen as a human-made illness caused by environmental factors such as pollution and diet, the dis.
