Researchers find cancer in ancient Egyptian mummy

A professor from American University in Cairo says 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 key to 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. She said this was the second oldest known case of prostate cancer. "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. A statement from AUC says the oldest known case came from a 2,700 year-old skeleton of a king in Russia.