Cancer: man made disease

Nature Reviews Cancer 10, 728-733 (October 2010) | doi:10.1038/nrc2914

SCIENCE AND SOCIETY:Cancer: an old disease, a new disease or something in between?

A. Rosalie David¹ & Michael R. Zimmerman²  About the authors

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Abstract

In industrialized societies, cancer is second only to cardiovascular disease as a cause of death. The history of this disorder has the potential to improve our understanding of disease prevention, aetiology, pathogenesis and treatment. A striking rarity of malignancies in ancient physical remains might indicate that cancer was rare in antiquity, and so poses questions about the role of carcinogenic environmental factors in modern societies. Although the rarity of cancer in antiquity remains undisputed, the first published histological diagnosis of cancer in an Egyptian mummy demonstrates that new evidence is still forthcoming.

Every year, more than 1,350,000 US and UK citizens learn for the first time that they have cancer. Although many may be cured, cancer still causes 165,000 deaths every year and is second only to cardiovascular disease as a cause of death. The history of cancer has the potential to improve our understanding of disease prevention, aetiology, pathogenesis and treatment. However, a chronological assessment of the occurrence of cancer in early fossil, animal and human remains demonstrates the rarity of malignancies in antiquity. Evidence for the occurrence of this disease in antiquity includes inscriptions, archaeological material and palaeopathological specimens. There are few, often uncertain, references to cancer in Egyptian and Classical literature./.../