Archaeologists uncover earliest human skeleton with cancer

British Archaeologists say they've found the earliest human skeleton with metastatic cancer, saying they hope it will provide new insight into the fatal disease.

The 3,000-year-old adult male skeleton, estimated to be between 25 and 35 years old, was uncovered from a tomb in Sudan in 2013. Researchers from Durham University and the British Museum analyzed the skeleton using radiography and a scanning electron microscope. The clear bone lesion images showed that the tumor spread to the collarbones, shoulder blades, upper arms, vertebrae, ribs, pelvis and thighbones.

"Our analysis showed that the shape of the small lesions on the bones can only have been caused by a soft tissue cancer ... though the exact origin is impossible to determine through the bones alone," Michaela Binder, a Durham PhD student who led the research and excavated and examined the skeleton, told Reuters.

According to the World Health Organization's cancer research agency, there were 14 million new cancer cases in 2012, and the number is expected to rise to 22 million in the next 20 years. Despite being one of the most fatal diseases today, however, there are hardly any archaeological records of it compared to other diseases.

Binder said this evidence offers fresh clues as to how to disease works.

"Insights gained from archaeological human remains like these can really help us to understand the evolution and history of modern diseases," she said.

DNA analysis of skeletons with cancer can be used to detect mutations in specific genes associated with certain cancer types.

The new findings, published Monday in the Public Library of Science journal PLOS ONE, suggest that cancer was around in the Nile Valley even in ancient times, even though it's seen as a modern disease more prominent due to modern lifestyles and to higher life expectancy.

Researchers could only speculate as to what caused the cancer in this case.