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Researchers find cancer in ancient Egyptian mummy

Sun Jan 29, 2012 10:06 AM EST
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Associated Press
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CAIRO — A professor from American University in Cairo says discovery of prostate cancer in a 2,200-year-old mummy indicates the disease was caused by genetics, not environment.

The genetics-environment question is key to understanding cancer.

AUC professor Salima Ikram, a member of the team that studied the mummy in Portugal for two years, said Sunday the mummy was of a man who died in his forties.

She said this was the second oldest known case of prostate cancer.

"Living conditions in ancient times were very different; there were no pollutants or modified foods, which leads us to believe that the disease is not necessarily only linked to industrial factors," she said.

A statement from AUC says the oldest known case came from a 2,700 year-old skeleton of a king in Russia.

© 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Fifth Horseman

It is in the Genes. Not all males with the Prostate cancer gene gets Prostate cancer, as with Breast cancer gene that all women have. How many do not get it. As people live longer the gene becomes active. Kind of like Gods way of getting you off the planet. Remember that old disease called "Small Pox" not everyone who got it died from it. That would effect a person genes, that were past on to his/her offspring. Who when they got "Small Pox" got a mild case.

Will I get Prostate cancer, yes. My father had it as did his father, and his father. My father did not live long enough to die from it. My fate is seal as it is in my genes.

Research is stopping the gene from being active, not for a cure once the disease is active.

  • 2 votes
Reply#1 - Sun Jan 29, 2012 11:22 AM EST
Slinger-958418

Egyptians were huge meat eaters...........Do you really think this would be the case if say they were Vegans?

    #1.1 - Tue Jan 31, 2012 3:11 PM EST
    Chirmly

    Yes, there would still be cancer. Vegetarians still get cancer. Certain colo-rectal cancers, for instance, occur with greater frequency in vegetarians and vegans, as opposed to meat-eaters.

    And cervical cancer incidence is higher in vegetarians.

    It's the genes or caused by viruses, in many cases.

    Rabbits, for instance, get lots of kinds of cancer. Cows get cancer. Sadly, even parrotfish get cancer :(

      #1.2 - Tue Jan 31, 2012 5:36 PM EST
      Reply
      Chirmly

      Other examples were in a female that lived around 1700 BC with head/neck cancer. Or the australopithecus with a possible Burkitts lymphoma.

      • 1 vote
      Reply#2 - Mon Jan 30, 2012 4:31 AM EST
      DEATHNELL J.

      We "weren't" meant to be here forever...

      • 2 votes
      Reply#3 - Tue Jan 31, 2012 7:09 AM EST
      northern girl

      You're exactly right... we werent! Disease is nature's way of culling the herd. Humans are the only animal that live past their reproductive years, and thats only because of modern medicine and farming techniques. In the natural world, once you pass the age of being able to duplicate yourself, you become more of a burden on the species than a benefit by using up valuable resources that the others could use to survive.

      Granted, humans have better brains than a deer, and we are able to grow our own food, and raise our own livestock, but if we were suddenly thrust back into the hunter/gatherer lifestyle, you wouldnt see people out living their "usefulness" (by natures terms).

      • 3 votes
      #3.1 - Tue Jan 31, 2012 9:38 AM EST
      Chirmly

      Nothern, you mean, other than guppies, monkeys, chimps, elephants, whales, some dolphins, some rats (maybe some mice).

      Diseases are nature's way of... keeping alive. Some diseases are entire life-forms in their own right. To the many forms of parasites, bacteria and the like, humans are merely like a forest -- it's just a place to live.

      Some conditions, like cancers or auto-immune diseases are due to defects which actually serve to strengthen our population by providing mutations which may be beneficial, and when not beneficial, by providing another selective force.

      • 1 vote
      #3.2 - Tue Jan 31, 2012 10:26 AM EST
      Reply
      Passerby

      Gene modulation caused by what? Life is being misled and we seem to be the guinea pigs of the cosmos.

        Reply#4 - Tue Jan 31, 2012 6:55 PM EST
        Chirmly

        If our genes were not constantly changing from generation to generation, then we'd be unable to survive changes to the environs. We have evolved to survive in a very narrow range of temperatures, under a very narrow range of conditions. We have evolved the ability to withstand and counter only a certain group of illnesses. Without the constant changes, each generation would be precisely like the one(s) before it. Thus we'd be unable to generate and inherit new immunities (like CCR-5).

        A single disease, like the black-plague or the Spanish flu would otherwise be absolutely fatal, to everyone.

          #4.1 - Tue Jan 31, 2012 9:15 PM EST
          Reply
          reddirthippy

          "Living conditions in ancient times were very different; there were no pollutants or modified foods, which leads us to believe that the disease is not necessarily only linked to industrial factors," she said.

          1) I don't think anybody has said it is due "only" to industrial factors.

          2) there was pollution

          3) kind of depends on what you mean by modified -- if i'm grinding up grain on rocks that contain heavy metals some of that is going into the food.

            Reply#5 - Wed Feb 1, 2012 2:30 PM EST
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