By | March 18, 2023
A prehistoric toe bone that contains cancer. On the left side of the bone we see a lumpy mass.

Cancer may seem like a modern disease, but it has been affecting people for ages. Scientists have discovered many prehistoric human remains that indicate the presence of cancer. So, what is the earliest case of cancer that has been recorded? And what is the first time that people wrote about it in medical texts?

The earliest evidence of cancer in humans comes from an early human relative that lived about 1.7 million years ago. This individual, probably of the species Paranthropus robustus or Homo ergaster, lived with a malignant tumor in his left toe. Archaeologists discovered the skeletal remains inside Swartkran Cave, a limestone deposit in South Africa often called the Cradle of Humankind for being home to the largest concentration of human relatives in the world.

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