Scientists find cancer in 1.7 million-year-old human fossil

A team of scientists in Africa has discovered an ancient fossil, which may prove when cancer first started appearing in humans.

Using 3D imaging, scientists found a type of cancer called “osteosarcoma” in a foot bone which dates back to about 1.7 million years ago.

Images recorded the density differences within the bone and generated views of the fragment from all directions. The results showed an abnormal growth pattern of bone tissue which led the team to diagnose the condition as bone cancer.

“You can opt for the paleo diet, you can have as clean a living environment as you want, but the capacity for these diseases is ancient, and it's within us regardless of what you do to yourselves,” said study co-author Edward Odes of the University of the Witwatersrand.

The fossil was recovered from the Swartkrans cave site, near Johannesburg. The toe bone was the only part of the human skeleton found which researchers say was too little to determine if it belonged to an adult or a child or even if the cancer was the ultimate cause of death.

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