Oldest Cancer Found In 1.7 Million-Year-Old Bone

Now, researchers have discovered ancient fossils which may give us clues on when cancer first started appearing in humans.

The oldest evidence of cancer has been found in a foot bone approximately 1.7 million years old.

The finds challenge the established theory that cancer is a disease caused by modern life.

The newly discovered specimens contain osteogenic cancers – cancers that start in the bone and can not be attributed to environmental factors.

It is not possible to tell if the foot bone belonged to an adult or child, or if the cancer caused the death of this individual, said Bernhard Zipfel, also at the University of Witwatersrand.

The benign tumour was found in “Karabo”, a child belonging to the ape-like hominin species Australopithecus sediba, from the Malapa fossil site in South Africa.

Image of the external morphology of a hominin foot bone (Paranthropus robustus or Homo ergaster) shows the extent of expansion of the primary bone cancer beyond the surface of the bone.

According to a press release, “Though the exact species to which the foot bone belongs is unknown, it is clearly that of a hominin, or bipedal human relative”. Before this discovery, the oldest known human tumour was found in a 120,000 year old specimen.

But researchers did not come to know about the tumor in the bone at the time it was found. A detailed assessment was carried out of the bone and then the tumor was found. At that time, it was concluded to be a kind of benign mass known as an osteoid osteoma.

“Yet again extensive ancient Egyptian data, along with other data from across the millennia, has given modern society a clear message – cancer is man-made and something that we can and should address”, said Professor Rosalie David in 2010, Phys.org reports.

“In short it would have been painful”, he said.

A team of paleontologists led by Dr. Patrick Randolph-Quinney from the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits University) in Johannesburg, South Africa, and the University of Central Lancashire, UK, announced this week the discovery of the earliest evidence for cancer and bony tumors yet described in the human fossil record.

“What was originally diagnosed as a benign exosteal growth is now shown to represent a malignant bone malignancy”, the researchers wrote in the South African Journal of Science.

“This is another good example of how the modern clinical sciences and the science of paleoanthropology are working together in South Africa and with global collaborators to advance our understanding of diseases in both the past and the present”, she said.

Scientists stumbled upon a surprising new discovery revealing cancer may not be the modern illness many assume it is. She said the finding may open new doors for investigating the causes of osteocarcoma.