The world’s oldest known case of cancer was recently discovered via a tumor in an ancient human’s left toe bone.
According to medical experts, the toe belonged to an “early human ancestor dating back 1.6-1.8 million years old.” The research was published in the peer-reviewed journal South African Journal of Science, and it analyzed a discovery made by archaeologists in the Swartkrans Cave in South Africa.
Oldest Known Fossil
The team said that advances in 3D imaging methods made it possible for the cancer diagnosis to be uncovered. Scans of the toe bone fossil were compared to modern-day cases of osteosarcoma, which is a cancer that begins in the cells that form bones, and they instantly noticed similarities between the images. The said that there would not be any reason “to suspect that primary bone tumors would have been any less frequent in ancient specimens.”
Researchers added that the osteosarcoma found in the fossil was likely “not related to lifestyle and often occurs in younger individuals.”
The diagnosis means that this becomes the oldest known cancer case found inside a bone in history. While organs and skin are prone to decay, bone can be preserved for millions of years in fossils.
So while we may not pay much attention to our toes, it’s amazing to think that more than a million years ago, a human ancestor passed away and their toe was preserved for centuries to allow us to eventually make the earliest cancer diagnosis on record!