4,000-Year-Old Skull Hints Ancient Egyptians Tried Surgery to Cure Brain Cancer

Analysis of two 4,000-year-old skulls has revealed that ancient Egyptians attempted to treat brain cancer. A new study regarding this is published in the journal Frontiers in Medicine.

The study was made jointly by researchers from the Universities of Tubingen in Germany, Cambridge in England, Barcelona and Santiago de Compostela in Spain.

The researchers found evidence of brain tumour extraction from these ancient skulls.

According to Newsweek, the skulls they examined belong to the University of Cambridge’s Duckworth Collection, dating from between 2687 and 2345 BCE. They belonged to a 30 to 35-year-old male, and another of a female aged over 50 dating from between 663 and 343 BCE.

Researchers found a large lesion indicating abnormal growth of tissues as well as other smaller lesions around the skull hinting that the growth had metastasised.

The team also found knife marks around each of these lesions. It was as if someone had intentionally tried to cut out these cancerous growths.

It seems ancient Egyptians performed some kind of surgical intervention to remove the cancerous tissues. The second skull also displayed a large lesion consistent with a cancerous growth.