"cave men" had cancer

[DrLeftover]

The world's oldest known human tumour has been found in the rib bone of a Neanderthal who lived more than 120,000 years ago.

The bone was evacuated from a site in Krapina, Croatia more than 100 years ago and has been found to have contracted the fibrous dysplasia tumour, a cancer which is common among modern-day humans.

This discovery by David Frayer from the University of Kansas predates previous evidence of the tumour by more than 100,000 years.

Before this discovery, the earliest bone tumour was seen in an Egyptian mummy around 2,000 years ago.

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/475461/20130606/oldest-cancer-tumour-neanderthal-bone-120000-years.htm

 

[Evil Eye]

Seems a bit sad that we're still dealing with problems we had 100000 years ago.

 

[DrLeftover]

But that also lets the air out of the argument that "nobody got cancer back in the olden days" while discussing cell phones and sausages.

 

[Evil Eye]

People believe that?
I think the Egyptian mummy's cancer and the fact that cancer was actually named by the ancient Greeks ought to have dispelled that thought... and if it didn't, neither will this.

 

[DrLeftover]

True, but this goes back a touch further.

 

[KratomPW]

Why would people think cancer is something new?

It is probably more prevalant now than it was back then. But I believe the reason being for that is back a few hundred years ago if you were to get a cut and it got infected. You could DIE from it. Now we have antibiotics. With all the new technology people are living longer. And you are much more likely to get cancer at an older age.

Back then not as many people lived long enough to get cancer. They would die of another cause before they were to get cancer.

Just my opinion.