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Cancer found in ancient Egyptian mummy

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Tue, 31 Jan 2012 8:52a.m.

(Reuters file)

(Reuters file)

A professor from American University in Cairo says the discovery of prostate cancer in a 2,200-year-old mummy indicates the disease was caused by genetics, not environment.

The genetics-environment question is key to understanding cancer.

AUC professor Salima Ikram, a member of the team that studied the mummy in Portugal for two years, said the mummy was of a man who died in his forties.

She said this was the second oldest known case of prostate cancer.

"Living conditions in ancient times were very different; there were no pollutants or modified foods, which leads us to believe that the disease is not necessarily only linked to industrial factors," she said.

A statement from AUC says the oldest known case came from a 2,700-year-old skeleton of a king in Russia.

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Comments

08 Feb 2012 06:41a.m.

Grant wrote:

Amongst a range of medical conditions, my prostate started playing up(high PSA levels) after exposure to a synthetic copy of a bacterial toxin(chloramphenicol). I now minimise eating fruits and vegetables as part of the process of minimising the damage as they naturally contain benzene based toxins(salicylates) that I am now extremely sensitive to. Benzene, is a known carciinogen, it is part of the structure of many compounds our body uses. The prostrate needs para-amino benzoic acid. If for any reason the our ability to process benzene compounds is disrupted then cancer can occur.

01 Feb 2012 08:25a.m.

Ian wrote:

Although understandably there would be less pollutants, as they are called, in ancient Egypt, unless they find a mummified fish and inspect it for levels of mercury and lead it is highly unlikely that they can say conclusively that there were no pollutants present. Many of the carcinogenic compounds that exist presently existed in the past in smaller quantities.....