From the sands of time: 4,000-year-old skulls reveal how ancient Egyptians tried to treat cancer!

Imagine you are in ancient Egypt! A healer, adorned in linen robes and an ornate headdress, stands over a patient in a dimly lit chamber. He is equipped with rudimentary yet precise copper tools. With a steady hand, he carefully carves into the patient’s skull. Invoking the blessings of Thoth, the god of medicine and wisdom, he bravely attempts to excise a deadly tumour.

This isn't a scene from a historical drama, but a reality uncovered by recent research. Astonishingly, the battle against cancer didn’t start with modern medicine; it began over 4,000 years ago with the pioneering efforts of the ancient Egyptians.

Ancient Egyptian medical practices were incredibly advanced for their time. These early medical practitioners could diagnose and treat various diseases and injuries, construct prostheses and even perform dental work. Now, fresh discoveries have shown that they were not only identifying cancer but also performing intricate surgical procedures to treat it.
Unravelling ancient medical marvels
To explore cancer’s historical prevalence, a research team examined two skulls from the University of Cambridge's Duckworth Collection. Skull 236, from a male aged 30 to 35, dates back to between 2687 and 2345 BCE. Skull E270, from a female over 50, dates to between 663 and 343 BCE.

Microscopic examination of Skull 236 revealed a large lesion indicative of neoplasm (an abnormal mass of tissue), accompanied by approximately 30 small, round metastasized lesions scattered across the skull. Similarly, Skull E270 displayed a significant lesion suggestive of a cancerous tumour that led to bone destruction.

What astonished the researchers were cut marks around these lesions, likely made with a sharp metal instrument.


“It seems ancient Egyptians performed some kind of surgical intervention related to the presence of cancerous cells, proving that ancient Egyptian medicine was also conducting experimental treatments or medical explorations in relation to cancer,” explained co-author Prof. Albert Isidro, an Egyptology specialist and a surgical oncologist at the University Hospital Sagrat Cor.

“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,” added Prof. Edgard Camarós, the study's lead author and a paleopathologist at the University of Santiago de Compostela.

This discovery also suggests that although today's factors like lifestyle, ageing populations and environmental carcinogens increase cancer risk, the disease was also prevalent in ancient times. This shared human experience of battling illness across millennia marks an interesting link between us and our ancestors.

However, the researchers cautioned that studying skeletal remains presents challenges, as they are often incomplete and lack clinical histories. Therefore, while this research does shift our understanding and pave the way for future research in paleo-oncology, more studies are necessary to unravel how ancient societies managed cancer.

The findings were recently published in the journal Frontiers in Medicine and can be accessed here.