Ancient Egyptian skulls reveal 4,000-year-old cancer treatments, study finds

The University of Cambridge is home to a 4,000-year-old Egyptian skull that has been hiding nearly invisible cut marks for decades. According to a recent study that was published in Frontiers in Medicine, these marks could be proof of an antiquated treatment for cancer.

Presently kept in the Duckworth Collection at the University of Cambridge, two skulls exhibit indications of attempted treatments as well as evidence of cancer and other injuries.

"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," says paleopathologist Edgard Camarós of the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain.

Although there are indications of cancer on both skulls, a thorough microscopic and CT scan investigation reveals a radically different picture of each.

The owner of skull number 236 was a guy who lived in ancient Egypt between 2687 and 2345 BCE. Although there are other possible diagnoses, the about thirty lesions on his skull, which are compatible with metastasized cancer, indicate that the man died in his early 30s.

The majority of these lesions are somewhat little, but a few are notably bigger. One of them is a neoplasm on top of the man's head, which is a coin-sized depression that has been hollowed out as tissue was destroyed by cancerous tissue.

The female whose skull number in the Duckworth Collection is E270 lived from 663 to 343 BCE. Her cranium is replete with stories, and she was over 50 when she passed away. The first thing you may notice is a large lesion between the right frontal and parietal bones that dominates the top of the head. Among other possible diagnoses, this lesion is consistent with osteosarcoma or meningioma.

However, the skull has repaired in other places. Sharp-force trauma caused a big injury above her left eyebrow. The researchers claim that someone appeared to have struck her in the head with a sharp object.

The fact that these wounds have healed quite effectively is what makes them so fascinating. Therefore, even if the exact cause of death for both individuals is unknown, the advanced stage of the cancer in both cases suggests a connection to mortality that cannot be disregarded. The ancient Egyptians attempted a remedy for this condition, but the solution appears to have remained elusive.

(With inputs from agencies)