Lhe ancient Egyptians developed cutting-edge treatments for many diseases. Numerous papyri thus bear witness to a sophisticated pharmacopoeia for treating various dermatological and gynecological conditions. But also digestive diseases, trauma and dental problems.
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Had doctors from the Pharaonic era begun to develop a specific treatment for cancer? German, English and Spanish scientists suggest this. Two Egyptian skulls, analyzed recently, in any case present characteristics suggesting that they were the subject of extensive care.
Skulls found by chance
The bones in question come from the site of Giza, near Cairo. They are held in the Duckworth Collection at the University of Cambridge. It was the Spanish archaeologist Edgard Camarós who found them, in October 2022, in the reserves of this institution.
The researcher from the University of Santiago de Compostela was then in residence there. The 38-year-old Spaniard says he was intrigued by a label on a box. It bore a questioning handwritten note: “cancer? »
By examining the piles of bones found inside, the archaeologist specializing in the study of “paleopathologies” immediately realized that these skulls deserved attention. In collaboration with Tatiana Tondini, from the University of Tübingen in Germany, but also Albert Isidro, from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, he examined these bones from every angle.
Oldest case of cancer treated
Their observations carried out by microscope but also by scanner, using “three-dimensional scanning techniques” gave rise to the publication of an article in the journalFrontiers in Medicine on May 29. The conclusions contained therein revolutionize the state of knowledge in the history of medicine.
Both skulls show traces of cancerous tumors. And one of them had specific surgical procedures done on one of these tumors.
The two skulls have in common that they had benefited from dental care during their lives, which attests to the fact that they belonged to people enjoying an advantageous social position. However, they date from different periods of Egyptian history. The skull designated under the number 236 belonged to a man around thirty years old, who died between 2687 and 2345 BCE, the period when the great pyramids were erected.
The second (presented under the number E270) is that of a woman who lived later: between 663 and 343 BC. Dating is made difficult due to the way the skull was preserved. She was over 50 years old at the time of her death. Comparing them allows us to open up interesting perspectives regarding the evolution of medical practices between these two eras.
Last chance operation or autopsy?
The oldest skull presents a significant number of lesions – around thirty in total – testifying to the advanced state of a metastasized cancer. Researchers believe the primary tumor was located in the pharynx. This throat cancer would then have affected the palate before spreading to the brain. The individual died of this disease 4,000 years ago.
We have known for around ten years that cancers are not the prerogative of modern men. Our prehistoric ancestors were not immune to this disease. A cancerous tumor was identified in 2013 on the skeleton of a 120,000-year-old Neanderthal man, found in a cave in Croatia.
In 2016, it was on a fragment of hominid bone dating back to 1.7 million years BC and exhumed in the Swartkrans cave, near Johannesburg (South Africa), that a another type of invasive cancer: osteosarcoma.
Prehistoric cancers
The images obtained by CT on skull 236, however, provided new information. “The fine incision marks observed around the lesions suggest surgical intervention to treat diseased cells,” says Professor Albert Isidro, who conducted additional studies at the oncology department of Sagrat Cor University Hospital in Barcelona.
“Was this operation carried out before death to try to treat the individual or after his death to understand the cause of his death? The answer to this question is not clear-cut,” adds Edgard Camarós, for whom the question is ultimately relatively secondary. “In both cases, we are certain that we are dealing with a medical procedure that attempts… either to treat or to understand the cause of death,” he continues.
There are many mummies that have undergone surgical interventions. Some have undergone trepanations, dental fillings, fracture reductions, but this is the first time that we have found traces of an oncological treatment.
Treatments at the time of the pyramids
Cancers were known to the Egyptians. A medical treatise, written 4,500 years ago and attributed to the doctor Imhotep, describes, among around fifty clinical cases, that of a woman presenting a lump in the breast which could be a cancerous tumor. This papyrus details the appearance and texture of the lesion to the touch. He specifies that at the time, there was no known cure for this disease.
The discovery published by researchers from the universities of Cambridge (United Kingdom), Tübingen (Germany) and Santiago de Compostela (Spain) is all the more remarkable. Because it indicates that Egyptian doctors did not stick to this observation of failure. They sought to understand and even treat this disease.
The Riddles of Another Skull
The second bone, that of the fifty-year-old woman, presents a large lesion attributable to osteosarcoma or meningioma, cancers which frequently cause spectacular bone damage. This particularly aggressive tumor did not receive the same type of care as the other skull.
What caught the attention of the international team was the treatment of an older trauma: a deep wound above the left eyebrow, probably inflicted by a metal object. “We hypothesize that this woman was attacked by a right-handed individual using a sword or other sharp blade. If it had been a man, we would have immediately said that he was a warrior. There, we don’t know what to conclude,” says Edgard Camarós.
This type of scar obviously raises the question of women’s participation in combat. Unless she was a victim of domestic violence! “We cannot decide at this stage,” recognizes Edgard Camarós.
“Tumors have evolved over time”
Despite the fact that the Egyptians did not know any cure for frequent infections, the wound was in any case healed despite the depth of the wound, which suggests that treatment was also happily administered there. The cancer that ended up killing this fifty-year-old appeared later in another place on the skull (at the back).
“At the time, this disease was incurable. But today, neither of these two patients would have developed such advanced tumors and they would probably have been cured,” estimates the Spanish researcher who intends to continue his studies on cancer through the ages.
“This pathology is a product of our habits and our genetics. And the tumors evolved over time,” he says, referring to the case of specific lung cancers developed by chimney sweeps in England in the 18th century.e century. Or the nasopharyngeal tumors characteristic of ancient Egypt. “They were perhaps due to a desert-type environment where inhaling sand can inflame the nasal passages and is a factor that could increase the incidence of this disease at that time,” he points out.
Edgar Camarós is preparing to look at very different skeletons in a new study. “My next topic concerns hominids discovered in Kenya which are dated a little over a million years ago. I am trying to understand the causes of their deaths. It could also be cancer,” he concludes.
