Cancer; we all know about this nasty disease that takes thousands even millions of lives each year. We know about the research and money that goes into finding a cure; as Penn Staters we even host the “oldest and longest dance marathon in the country” known as THON which is the “largest student run philanthropy in the world” to raise money for pediatric cancer research. We all know someone who was effected by cancer. But do we know the origins of cancer? Where did it come from? When did it start?
(image from THON)
Before answering those questions we have to understand what cancer actually is. According to the National Cancer Institute, cancer is when “some of the body’s cells begin to divide without stopping and spread into surrounding tissues. Cancer can start almost anywhere in the human body, which is made up of trillions of cells. Normally, human cells grow and divide to form new cells as the body needs them. When cells grow old or become damaged, they die, and new cells take their place. When cancer develops, however, this orderly process breaks down. As cells become more and more abnormal, old or damaged cells survive when they should die, and new cells form when they are not needed. These extra cells can divide without stopping and may form growths called tumors.”
There are many different forms of cancer. Click Here if your interested in learning about the different types of cancer, their symptoms, treatments and research. However, for the purpose of this blog, we are looking at cancer in a whole not a specific type.
(image from becuo)
According to the American Cancer Society , “Some of the earliest evidence of cancer is found among fossilized bone tumors, human mummies in ancient Egypt, and ancient manuscripts. Growths suggestive of the bone cancer called osteosarcoma have been seen in mummies. Bony skull destruction as seen in cancer of the head and neck has been found, too. Our oldest description of cancer (although the word cancer was not used) was discovered in Egypt and dates back to about 3000 BC. It’s called the Edwin Smith Papyrus and is a copy of part of an ancient Egyptian textbook on trauma surgery. It describes 8 cases of tumors or ulcers of the breast that were removed by cauterization with a tool called the fire drill. The writing says about the disease, “There is no treatment.”
(Edwin Smith Papyrus image from U.S. National Library of Medicine)
According to the research above, the first signs of what we know today as cancer originated in Egypt. This was concluded because scientists looked at the Edwin Smith Papyrus and concluded that the conditions written about are similar to cancer. However, Andrew has repeatedly said, “data can be consistent with more than one hypothesis.” So can these conditions actually be other diseases besides cancer?
According to an article in Daily Mail, “Cancer is a man-made disease fueled by the excesses of modern life, a study of ancient remains has found. Tumors were rare until recent times when pollution and poor diet became issues, the review of mummies, fossils and classical literature found.”
Michael Zimmerman, a professor at Manchester University, says to Daily Mail, “The virtual absence of malignancies in mummies must be interpreted as indicating their rarity in antiquity, indicating that cancer-causing factors are limited to societies affected by modern industrialization.’
Tracing the roots of cancer, Zimmerman and Rosalie David, his colleague, “analyzed possible references to the disease in classical literature and scrutinized signs in the fossil record and in mummified bodies. Despite slivers of tissue from hundreds of Egyptian mummies being rehydrated and placed under the microscope, only one case of cancer has been confirmed. Dismissing the argument that the ancient Egyptians didn’t live long enough to develop cancer, the researchers pointed out that other age-related disease such as hardening of the arteries and brittle bones did occur. Evidence of cancer in ancient Egyptian texts is also ‘tenuous’ with cancer-like problems more likely to have been caused by leprosy or even varicose veins. The ancient Greeks were probably the first to define cancer as a specific disease and to distinguish between benign and malignant tumors. And the first reports in scientific literature of distinctive tumors only occurred in the past 200 years or so, including scrotal cancer in chimney sweeps in 1775 and nasal cancer in snuff users in 1761.”
The research done by Zimmerman, David and the American Cancer Society has helped to explain the origins of cancer and how it started.