Antiquities Ministry: 4,200 year-old mummy shows oldest signs of breast cancer

Five mummies were transported to Aswan University Hospital on Tuesday to be x-rayed for signs of cancer, with one adult female reported to be the oldest documented case of breast cancer.

Sources from Egypt’s Antiquities Ministry told local media outlets the mummified woman is thought to have died from breast cancer 4,200 years ago, during the time of the Old Kingdom’s Sixth Dynasty (circa 2345 BC to 2181 BC).

Archaeologists and medical experts are keen to examine the mummy to ascertain her medical history and whether or not she underwent any treatment, according to Nasr Salama, director of antiquities in Aswan.

The mummies have been in museum storage in Aswan since 2015. They were unearthed by a team of Spanish archaeologists from the University of Jaén, who have been excavating in the Qubbet al-Hawa necropolis in western Aswan since 2008.

Salama says the ministry’s claims may be premature, however. He told the privately owned Al-Watan newspaper in a video interview that “scientists announced the world’s first case of breast cancer by merely inspecting an eye, without conducting laboratory tests or x-rays.”

The earliest known descriptions of cancer were found on the Edwin Smith Papyrus, believed to have been written in the 16th or 17th dynasties, dating back around 3,600 years, which includes depictions of primitive procedures for removing breast tumors through cauterization.

The world’s earliest documented case of prostate cancer was found in the skeletal remains of a man buried in Tuva, Sibera, dating back around 2,700 years.

National Geographic published an article last year indicating cancer may have preceded the human race, after an aggressive type was discovered in the foot bone of an early human relative in South Africa, believed to date back 1.6 to 1.8 million years ago. This has raised questions about modern-day assertions cancer is linked to nutrition and polluted environments.