Ancient Egyptian skull shows oldest attempt at cancer surgery

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A pair of ancient Egyptian skulls, both thousands of years old, belonged to some of history's earliest known cancer patients, according to a study published Wednesday. The skulls had cut marks around cancerous growths — providing evidence that ancient Egyptians had explored ways to treat cancer through operations, said the study published in Frontiers in Medicine journal. The ancient Egyptians were known for their medical know-how.

” Camarós, a paleopathologist at the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain, and his team looked at two skulls held by the University of Cambridge's Duckworth Collection, using micro-CT scanning and microscopic bone surface analysis, the study said. “We wanted to learn about the role of cancer in the past, how prevalent this disease was in antiquity, and how ancient societies interacted with this pathology,” said Tondini, a researcher at Germany’s University of Tübingen.

 

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