Unearthing Prehistoric Tumors, and Debate

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Unearthing Prehistoric Tumors, and Debate

The New York Times, December 27, 2010

When they excavated a Scythian burial mound in the Russian region of

Tuva about 10 years ago, archaeologists literally struck gold. Crouched

on the floor of a dark inner chamber were two skeletons, a man and a

woman, surrounded by royal garb from 27 centuries ago: headdresses and

capes adorned with gold horses, panthers and other sacred beasts. But

for paleopathologists – scholars of ancient disease – the richest

treasure was the abundance of tumors that had riddled almost every bone

of the man's body. The diagnosis: the oldest known case of metastasizing

prostate cancer. The prostate itself had disintegrated long ago. But

malignant cells from the gland had migrated according to a familiar

pattern and left identifiable scars. Proteins extracted from the bone

tested positive for PSA, prostate specific antigen. Often thought of as

a modern disease, cancer has always been with us. Where scientists

disagree is on how much it has been amplified by the sweet and bitter

fruits of civilization. Over the decades archaeologists have made about

200 possible cancer sightings dating to prehistoric times. But

considering the difficulties of extracting statistics from old bones, is

that a little or a lot?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/28/health/28cancer.html