Researchers discover cancer in Egyptian mummy
By The Associated Press
This article was published January 29, 2012 at 9:52 a.m.
CAIRO, Egypt — A professor from American University in Cairo said the discovery of prostate cancer in a 2,200-year-old mummy indicates the disease was caused by genetics, not environment.
AUC professor Salima Ikram, a member of the team that studied the mummy in Portugal for two years, said Sunday the mummy was 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 said the oldest known case came from a 2,700-year-old skeleton of a king in Russia.
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