Mummy Found With Prostate Cancer Suggests Disease Is Genetic
- Posted on January 30, 2012 at 1:32pm by
Liz Klimas
- Print »
- Email »
(Photo: MNA / DDF - Instituto dos Museus e da Conservação, I.P., Lisbon via Science Magazine)
CAIRO (The Blaze/AP) — A professor from American University in Cairo says the discovery of prostate cancer in a 2,200-year-old mummy indicates the disease was caused by genetics, not environment.
The genetics-environment question is vital to completely understanding cancer.
AUC professor Salima Ikram, a member of the team that studied the mummy in Portugal for two years, said Sunday the mummy was of a man who died in his forties.
“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.
The Daily Mail reports the researchers stating that bone lesions they found were indicative of prostate cancer in this mummy, the second oldest known case of the disease:
The earliest diagnosis of metastasising prostate carcinoma came in 2007 when researchers investigated the skeleton of a 2,700-year-old Scythian king who died, aged 40 to 50, in the steppe of Southern Siberia, Russia.
“This study shows that cancer did exist in antiquity, for sure in ancient Egypt. The main reason for the scarcity of examples found today might be the lower prevalence of carcinogens and the shorter life expectancy,” Paula Veiga, a researcher in Egyptology, told Discovery News.
The researchers also state finding small tumors along the mummy’s pelvis and spine in the lumbar region.
Last year, Science Magazine reported that in the past researchers have had a hard time detecting cancer in deceased beings. This was before CT scanners were more widely used.
CT scan of mummy's spine. (Image: LMP / IMI - Imagens Médicas Integradas, Lisbon via Science Magazine)
At the time, Science also reported Albert Zink, a biological anthropologist at the Institute for Mummies and the Iceman, as noting that environmental factors cannot be ruled out completely because carcinogenic materials, such as soot and bitumen, were prevalent during that time.
Popular Stories
Does Misstated Marathon Claim Prove Paul Ryan Is Dishonest? (POLL) 707 Comments
Paper Details Obama Admin’s Alleged Secret Note Sent to Iran: If Israel Attacks, We Won’t Get Involved 560 Comments
‘Made Up Religion’: TV Historian Enrages Muslims, Receives Threats After Producing UK Documentary Questioning Islam’s Beginnings 376 Comments
This Is the Creationists‘ Response to Scientist Bill Nye’s Viral Pro-Evolution Video Claiming They Harm Children 367 Comments
Roseanne Barr: Most Billionaires ‘Violent Pedophiles’ & ‘Heartless’ Cocaine Addicts 363 Comments
Faith
- This Is the Creationists‘ Response to Scientist Bill Nye’s Viral Pro-Evolution Video Claiming They Harm Children 367 Comments
Pakistani Muslim Cleric Accused of Framing Disabled Christian Girl in Koran-Burning Case Read More- ‘Made Up Religion’: TV Historian Enrages Muslims, Receives Threats After Producing UK Documentary Questioning Islam’s Beginnings 376 Comments
Meet the Controversial German Imam Accused of Brutally Beating His Wife & Pushing Sharia Law Read More
‘Self-Proclaimed Messiah’ & Unification Church Leader the Rev. Sun Myung Moon Has Died — Here’s His Life Story Read More
Business
- President Obama Issues Major ‘Green Energy’ Executive Order 298 Comments
- Germany’s Upcoming Court Ruling Will be Huge for the EU Read More
Ford Looks to Beat Toyota for Best-Selling Car in 2012 With This Model 149 Comments
Bernanke & QE3: Here’s What You Need to Know Read More- ‘Extortion’: Why Did the Labor Department ‘Drop the Hammer’ on Oregon Farmers? 302 Comments
Technology
- This Is the Creationists‘ Response to Scientist Bill Nye’s Viral Pro-Evolution Video Claiming They Harm Children 367 Comments
‘TaserDrone’: Hackers Weaponize Quadcopter With Actual ‘Shocking’ Technology Read More
Ever Heard of the Wild ‘Burning Man’ Festival in the Middle of the Nev. Desert? Here’s Your Primer Read More
Stanford Develops Technology ‘Better Than Steroids’ for Athlete Recovery Read More
Have You Pretended to Know What ‘the Cloud’ Is? You’re Not Alone Read More
Submitting your tip... please wait!
Comments (59)
Pharmer1
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 7:27pmSomeone oughta tell these “researchers” – the VIRUSES has been around forever too, such as polyoma, HPV and cytomegaloviruses, all of which can infect the prostate, and all of which have oncogenic potential.
AUC professor Salima Ikram is embarrassingly stupid, claiming that there were “no pollutants” associated with these urban aggregations of people.
There are likely numerous contributing factors to prostate cancer.
Seeing what comes out of the educational institutions is causing me to rethink the investment in higher education for my kids.
Report Post »DividedWeFail
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 8:47pmHow does he know there were no pollutants?
Romans used lead in their dishes and everything. Maybe these people ingested or breathed something we don’t know about.
Report Post »richard the lion-hearted
Posted on January 31, 2012 at 4:04pmBrought to you by the same scientists (collectively) who said (and say every other year it seems) that eggs are bad for you , wait, no good…milk is bad for you, wait, no it’s good…meat is bad for you, wait, no good, no bad if it’s red meat…coffee is bad for you, wait just a sec…nope good, nope strike that bad again, but just for women. Mush-heads who are looking for any shepard (just so they don‘t have to do the ’hard’ work and actually think for themselves) will always give these godless, self-proclaimed intelllectuals an audience, and so on it goes…
Report Post »I really enjoyed the one where ‘they’ said they proved that the parting of the Red Sea by Moses could happen naturally. I really laughed at that one, happens ALL the time even on so much smaller rivers and creeks
marion
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 7:06pmWhat is cancer? Simply a healthy cell which has mutated due to damaged DNA, and the body has this happen about a thousand times a day, but the white bloodcells doing their job catches it. It starts growing and the body leaves it alone because it recognizes it as enough healthy DNA that if ignores it and it continues to grow and become dangerous. Environment can increase this happening, but it doesn’t have to. Until cancer research realizes each individual has to be cured for their own body, there isn’t going to be one pill that kills all or any type of cancer.
Report Post »jb.kibs
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 8:35pmat least someone is thinking like a true scientist.
kudos. ;)
i hate scientists today, . there are no true scientists today…
Report Post »scientists today… they just assume everything else about something based on one thing that might have added up… lol, what a joke. it seems they are all bullsheet artists or are paid to prove a fact with other scrambled “facts”.
caryo
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 6:28pmHis energy field was disturbed – awfully young age to otherwise have cancer. May have had serious emotional issues in his root chakra leading to the problem…
Report Post »inferno
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 6:20pmToo bad he was born too long ago. Had he had the services of today’s modern know how, he would have lived much longer. How do i know ? According to Dr’s today, if you exercise, watch your diet
Report Post »and don’t smoke, you will live forever . Oh, there is just one hair in the soup, it’s known as genetics.
nilo
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 6:08pmIt is sin (the transgression of God’s Law – 1 John 3:4) that brought death to man. It started with Adam and Eve, and in turn with every man that has sinned — (Ezek 18:4 ) “Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.”
(Ezek 18:20 ) “The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.”
Disease is a result of our sin against God. We all die physically, and the soul that sins ( All have sinned Rom 3:23) is dead spiritually. Thanks to God for Jesus Christ who is the author of salvation to all that obey Him (Heb. 5:9). We can’t avoid the physical death (Heb 9:27), but we can avoid the eternal death (Mark 16:16 for example).
Report Post »Suchiazski
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 5:56pmThis is actually a valuable scientific study. And it’s about as non-partisan as it gets.
Report Post »CultureWarriors
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 6:19pmWhile all of what you said is true. Their seems to be a complete lack of understanding of the leading causation of cancer in the media today. It’s not chemicals or food or even genetics. It’s exposure to gamma and other types of radiation that causes cell mutation. So unless you lock yourself in a lead lined concrete bunker, you have a chance to of getting cancer. The cause is not rocket science, the cure that’s a little more complicated.
Report Post »Bill Burns
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 5:38pmDid they catch the prostate cancer in time?
Report Post »Shmuli
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 5:28pmWho ever said prostrate cancer was primarily the product of modified foods or industrial pollutants? Is this guy a scientist or promoter of rabid environmentalism? Most of the new science of nutrition is blaming DIET for cancer. Of course genetics will play a part, but somehow you have to affect the genetics to get cancer.
From my reading, the Egyptian diet was predominantly grains, fruit, vegetables and fish. Cattle was only owned by the wealthy. From what I have read, nutritionists today blame most modern diseases, be it cancer, diabetes or tooth decay, on diet, not just industrial pollutants. The recent focus is on the long-term effect of sugar, grains/wheat/carbohydrates (that is, simple sugars). Egyptians had grain and bread products in abundance.
Report Post »huberto
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 4:21pmThere were no pollutants? A scientist is saying that?? What about smoke? Or sewage runoff into the river?
Report Post »qzak491
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 3:40pmAren’t these so called “scientists” the same ones that gave us evolution, why believe anything they say. They only find what someone pays them to find. Scientists don’t work for science they work for grant money, what ever the people paying them want them to find they will probably find, whether it is true or not.
Report Post »P C BE DAMNED
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 3:47pmIn the book of Daniel, he and his friends refused to eat the Kings food but rather ate a vegetarian diet and drank water. It was said of them that they were 10 times healthier and 10 times wiser than their contemporaries because of diet alone.Now chew on that you so called scientists. FOOLS
Report Post »gemmeri
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 3:51pmIf you like conspiracy theories, I believe they fund these things primarily to protect themselves. If they did come up with a treatment or a cure, chances are they would keep it secret until they themselves were assured of being disease-free. The general populace are just the guinea pigs during the process. Has anyone else noticed that name-brand & original formula drugs are not being made available to the general public anymore, regardless of whether or not one can afford them? I am allergic to anything synthetic & the pharmacies are telling me the old drugs are no longer available. So where did they go? Are they being hoarded? I’m not talking substances that are in short supply, either, I’m talking common prescriptions that should be extremely cheap to make. Sky must be falling & world must be ending.
Report Post »gemmeri
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 4:04pmCooking or preserving meat correctly is a science all in itself. Refrigeration was almost non-existent unless one had an ice-cave & meat in particular was salted to death or seasoned to extremes to cover any taint. Trichinosis & anthrax & flatworms & other animal plagues are not new developments & they barely cooked their meat back then which wouldn’t have necessarily killed the infecting organisms. Think curries & peppers. Meat was also a good medium for poison because one can hide it by disguising with same seasoning techniques. Some cultures were nomadic & were also dependent on livestock which was left to fend for itself. Good ranchers nowadays like their animals at least to look well-groomed. Most animals will loll in mud to stay cool if that’s all there is. Desert cultures might have sweated themselves as individuals clean, but they certainly didn’t waste wash water on the livestock. Hides were cured with urine & tanned by hand. The opportunity for germs of all types & kinds was excellent. At least vegetables might have been boiled back then.
Report Post »TheSoundOf Truth
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 3:34pmYes, but yeast still existed back then, and there are some studies that seem to prove pretty conclusively that a yeast infestation and colonization of tissue causes cell mutation and eventually abnormal tissue, ie tumors. This is probably one reason why tumors need sugars to grow, and would explain why 60% of all prostate infections (a precursor to prostate cancer) are of a yeast nature. So if this guy’s immune system was whacked, it is possible that his body at one point was fighting yeast. Plus, they don’t mention what the COD was. It is possible that he was inbred as well, which could have given him a weaker immune system.
Cancer isn’t genetic. If you believe in evolution to some degree, then cancer would have been eliminated very early on in the development of the species. Cancer is an immune-related phenomenon.
Report Post »gemmeri
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 3:40pmWell, yeast is a critter, too. When they call them ‘bugs’ they aren’t that far off. All of our plagues are organisms. The trick is killing them off without killing the host. Some of them are rather entrenched.
Report Post »RightThinking1
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 3:23pmAt least this guy was spared the indignity of the annual exam.
Report Post »gemmeri
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 3:37pmI think their exam techniques are lacking, or is it done by lackeys? They need to come up with better thermal or heat imaging instead of mauling people. You think a mammogram is any better for large-breasted women? They actually do more damage than good. A really good physician can tell symptoms from a combination of factors & an all over body exam without assaulting their patient. I think most modern doctors are hacks.
Report Post »Spyderco
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 2:55pmThis was the first guy to sign up for Obamacare. They just started his treatment.
Report Post »ConservativeChristianB1954
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 2:55pmIt‘s Bush’s fault.
Report Post »Spyderco
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 2:47pmThey thought it was cancer but it turned out to be Nancy Pelosi.
Report Post »Thighmaster
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 5:47pmThere’s a difference?
Report Post »gemmeri
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 2:45pmThese so-called experts have not ruled out the possibility of a sexually transmitted disease being the underlying cause of prostrate cancer yet & in fact, there is good evidence nowadays that would support this theory. This mummy was a king? How promiscuous was he? We will never know & I would rather spend the time, energy & money on finding cures for the various diseases then that are still around today & may have mutated into various forms that plague the vast majority of our society, Do you people really know anything about HPV? Medical science estimates that over eighty percent of the total population in the US alone has this disease in one form or another. We’re not talking cold sores or other herpes, we’re talking a virus & it’s a nasty one that gets into the DNA of the cells & mutates & destroys it & hence you have lesions or warts or tumors or cancer. It may even affect plant cells the same way, but the point I am making is they don’t know because they have only just begun to study it. The past is a fascinating subject, but I would rather they concerned themselves with our present & our future. Especially when funding with our tax dollars. Scientists claim they have discovered over forty different strains of this virus so far & they only have experimental vaccines for two of those strains. Some things are just naturally more important than digging up old mummies, wouldn’t you all agree?
Report Post »ZeldaZick
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 2:37pmLooks like my Uncle Leo, did they find this guy on Miami Beach? Huh?
Report Post »nukethewhales
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 2:32pmYet again, the research community has missed the mark. Remember, their $$$ comes from 1) Big Government 2) Big Pharma and 3) Big Food, all of whom are in bed together. Prostate cancer (along with breast cancer and others) is caused primarily by a diet of animal proteins, particularly milk casein in this case. Thus this ancient Egyptian (obviously a big-shot or he would not have had such a swanky burial) would likely have had a diet rich in animal products, including milk. Read “The China Study,” by T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D. The findings of this shill for Gov/Pharma/Food are false.
Report Post »Rowgue
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 2:43pmBig pharma research drugs, they aren’t interested in what causes something, only in ways to treat it.
Studies are done by universities who don’t need any funding. They get all the grants they need straight from the government.
Report Post »Rowgue
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 2:49pmThe only problem with that theory is that there are vegans that still get cancer.
Report Post »thegreatcarnac
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 2:20pmThere is an increase in info that many things cause this kind of cancer…..one main thing that some have distained is STD’s of all kind. Even mild ones can cause prostate cancer.
Report Post »ProbIemSoIver
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 2:12pmI noticed that this professor acknowledges that GMOs contribute to Cancer.
Why do WE THE PEOPLE, allow these criminals in D.C. (A foreign owned private corporation – look it up) to get away with not informing the people to the fact that a MAJORITY of their food in America is Genetically Modified ?
Report Post »gemmeri
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 3:02pmI assume you are concerned with the modifications that do not occur from natural means? Because healthy corn was an end product of cross breeding various strains of grains & then different corns by planting small fields of different strains directly next to each other & allowing the plants to cross pollinate with the insects doing most of that work. I agree with you that if these people are directly altering genetic structure, they may not know exactly what they are doing & are toying with things that should be better left alone. Potential consequences are not always considered by the scientists or money lenders & what the hell was wrong with the corn in the first place? Maybe they should quit developing all the damn landscape & preserve the majority of open ground for agriculture. We need to eat. Water, food & shelter & in that order of priority. If they think they can do it better than God, maybe they should think again. Reminds me of that joke where Man claims he can create as well as God & the punch line is God says ‘Next time use your own dirt’. Makes you wonder if a Jurassic theme park isn’t in the making, all in the name of science of course. Scary stuff.
Report Post »Anonymous T. Irrelevant
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 2:11pmI realize they were trying to rule out modern pollutants, but it seems to me that they could have better spent the time and money in finding a CURE for cancer? How long have researchers been trying to cure diabetes, lung cancer, heart disease, 40-50 years? I know we can better treat these diseases, BUT no cure, yet. I think, once they find a cure, a lot of people will be out of a job.
Report Post »Kerri g
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 2:16pma lot of people will be out of a job. Hence no cure.
Report Post »Rowgue
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 2:38pmWhat have you been doing for the last 40-50 years? You haven’t come up with the cure for cancer yet? Well you’re obviously in on the massive conspiracy then.
Sure the cure is easy, they‘re just intentionally not finding it or have found it already and just won’t tell us. They all know but not one of the hundreds of thousands of people that have been involved in the research of cancer will tell us.
That all sounds perfectly rational and well thought out.
Report Post »/sarcasm off
gemmeri
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 3:14pmThey haven’t isolated the underlying cause yet – If it’s a virus as they think, killing a virus is harder than you know. Most of the time a virus only goes dormant or is controlled within the animal‘s or human’s body. Chicken pox can sometimes re-activate when the immune system starts to decline in old age & they then call it ‘shingles’ or HZV(Herpes Zoster Virus), but it’s still a form of chicken pox. All the vaccines do is minimize the damage or effects of the virus being treated. Not even our immunizations can completely protect us from a virus that mutates & they do – Through wrong drug use, environmental factors, what have you. Remember how they treated syphillis? They basically poisoned the host until the disease died & it’s bacteria-based. Viruses are tougher.
Report Post »ZaphodsPlanet
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 5:09pm@Gemmeri
God our science educations are so lacking. A Vaccine is not a patch as you describe. It is actually a dead form of the disease/virus. And in some cases it’s still a bit alive. The difference between a bacteria and a virus is SIGNIFICANT. Bacteria are actual live organisms …. while viruses are not exactly what I would call “alive”…. a virus will go in and insert it’s genetic code in your cells… thereby changing them into something different or causing them to replicate the virus. Your body‘s immune system catches wind of what’s going on and starts to attack the infected cells. This mechanism is what get’s disabled with someone is infected with HIV/AIDS. They don’t die from the HIV but rather something as simple as a cold which can never be effectively attacked by your immune system. A bacteria may only be single celled but it doesn’t change the genetic code of the cells it attacks… it just eats them and breeds itself on whatever nutrients it’s taking from your body. If you have a healthy immune system you should never get sick by the same virus twice. This is because your immune system has a memory. So the next time a virus pays you a visit, and you’ve had it before, your body will recognize and destroy it long before it is able to make you feel sick. Vaccines are an attempt to pre-program your immune system in it’s most basic form. I also don’t believe there can ever be a real vaccine for AIDS because of how it works, but vaccine
Report Post »skitrees
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 2:06pmTheir sewage and bathing water was one in the same…no pollutants?! I guess volcanoes didn’t exist either…and they didn’t melt led or gold or silver? No wood/coal burning anywhere in the world? No modified foods…they didn’t brine or smoke meets?! I guess they didn’t use salt at all?! Wow, I learn a lot from these “scientists.”
Oh wait…I get it…only MAN can cause pollution when you look at it from the progressive viewpoint – now it all makes sense, you only have to quit thinking entirely in order to understand them.
Report Post »USAMEDIC3008
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 3:00pmI like the way you think
Report Post »skitrees
Posted on January 31, 2012 at 1:02amWhoops – “meats”, not “meets”. ;^)
Report Post »JP4JOY
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 1:46pmNo environmental pollutants? What was it the Romans introduced into their water… oh yea LEAD! Bunch of moronic idiots. Poor water quality has been a scourge forever. They should have just said they didn’t know what kind of pollutant not no pollutants. Scientists or political operatives, you decide.
Report Post »hi
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 1:50pmGood point. Also, they probably had lots of sexually transmitted diseases which could contribute. (viruses)
Report Post »Rowgue
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 2:05pmThey’re talking about in comparison to modern times, where there are far more pollutants and foods are highly processed. They make the point because the clarion call for most of the tin foil hat wearing conspiracy theorists is that those things are what cause cancer, and that cancer didn’t exist before those things became so prevelant.
The truth is most diseases existed long before we had a name for them, but people didn’t usually live long enough to even experience the symptoms. Life expectancy is almost triple now what it was in the time of ancient egypt. Hell in the U.S. it’s gone from right around 50 years to over 80 years just since 1900.
Report Post »LeeroyJenkins
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 2:12pmWhat a bunch of…Cancer is an obviously created in a lab in the 1940s disease..No one had cancer until at least then. The rest of the cases were just calcium or fat deposits.
Report Post »Cat
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 2:37pmRowgue >
You’re right about the approximate dates, but did anyone ever think about the atomic testing around that time?
If memory serves, John Wayne and other actors filmed a movie in the desert shortly after one such test.
They were the first humans to ever get that close to a test site.
His female costar died of cancer (forgot her name), John died of cancer and several of the other actors and crew died of cancer, as well as horses used in the movie.
Jet stream winds travel west across that latitude and then around the globe …
Report Post »Releasing radioactive elements into the atmosphere may have contributed to the sudden increase in cancerous activity.
MittensKittens
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 1:36pmHow did “Mummy” get prostrate cancer I thought only “Daddys” got that.
Report Post »kickagrandma
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 2:03pmLOL! That is funny!
Report Post »Spyderco
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 2:49pmBoo. :-I
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 1:34pmToo bad… High IQ is not Genetic!
Report Post »Mikev5
Posted on January 30, 2012 at 4:59pmIt is genetic and the environment you live in and the people around you.
We are all born better to deal with special things than others that’s why we are all so different some are better at art some metal working some farmers we all have genetic strengths and weaknesses but we are all smart in our own way.
Repression leads to stupid people that’s it
Report Post »