X-Ray Studies of Two Million-Year-Old Fossil Reveal Earliest Known Cancer

In the first study, the hominid, either a member of the Homo genus or from the genus Paranthropus suffered from a malignant and possibly fatal, fast-growing cancer on a bone. The researchers used advanced X-Ray techniques and 3D representations to identify the cancer on the fossil-bone remains of the hominid found at the South African Swartkrans Cave site. The cancer was located on the surface of the toe, and in the bone.

In the second study, researchers found a benign tumor in the fossilized bone of an Australopithecus sediba child, nearly 2 million years old from an underground cave at the Malapa site also in South Africa.

Coauthor of both studies, medical anthropologist, Edward Odes, from the University of the Witwatersrand (Johannesburg, South Africa), said, “Our studies show that cancers and tumors occurred in our ancient relatives millions of years before modern industrial societies existed.”

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University of the Witwatersrand