Cancer did not originate in the modern world. Evidence of humans
afflicted with cancer dates from ancient times. Examinations of bones
from skeletons that are more than 3,000 years old reveal structures that
appear to be tumors. Records from ancient Egypt, written more than
4,000 years ago, describe breast cancers. Possible cases of bone tumors
have been observed in Egyptian mummies that are more than 5,000 years
old. It is even possible that our species’ ancestors developed cancer. In
1932 Louis Leakey discovered a jawbone from either Australopithecus or
Homo erectus, which possessed what appeared to be a tumor. Cancer
specialists examined the jawbone and suggested that the tumor was due
to Burkitt’s lymphoma, a type of cancer that affects the immune system.