SoylentNews

Phoenix666 [soylentnews.org] writes:

Cancer is often viewed as a fundamentally modern and monolithic disease. Many people think its rise and spread has been driven almost exclusively by the developed world's toxins and poisons; by our bad eating habits, lifestyles, and the very air we breathe.

Actually, cancer is not a single disease. It is also far from modern. New fossil evidence suggests that its origins lie deep in prehistory.

We recently published two papers in the South African Journal of Science that describe the discovery and diagnosis of the earliest benign tumour [sajs.co.za] and earliest malignant cancer [sajs.co.za] to affect the human family.

Tumours and cancers are collectively known as neoplastic diseases [cancerantiquity.org]. Until now, the oldest evidence of neoplasia in the hominin fossil record dated back 120,000 years [plos.org]. This was found in a rib fragment of a Neanderthal from Krapina in Croatia.

But our discovery [sajs.co.za], in two South African cave sites, offers definitive evidence of cancer in hominins – human ancestors – as far back as 1.7 million years ago.

Original Submission