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Authors: George Johnson
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size of the tumor, which caused such extensive destruction, suggests a relatively long-lasting process,” observedEugen Strouhal, the Czech anthropologist who documented the case. “The patient seems to have survived for a considerable time, and doubtless had pain and other symptoms. Survival would be impossible without the help and care of the patient’s fellow-men.” Here was another case where the horrors ofcancer punched through the flat veneer of scientific prose.
Multiple myeloma, a cancer ofplasma cells inbone marrow, can leave skeletal marks.Traces were found in the skull of a woman who lived in medieval times. Plasma cells are part of theimmune system and when behaving normally they produce antibodies calledimmunoglobulins. In multiple myeloma, one type is generated at the expense of the others. A chemical test found antibodies that the researchers considered confirmation of the disease.
Osteosarcoma, nasopharyngeal carcinoma, multiple myeloma—these areprimary cancers, those found at the site of origin. They are debilitating enough.Most skeletal cancers by far come from metastases originating elsewhere. They also show up with greater frequency in the fossil record—and with devastating results. Metastaticbone cancer has beendiscovered in Egyptian tombs,in a Portuguese necropolis, in a prehistoric gravein the Tennessee River valley,in a leper skeleton from a medieval cemetery in England. Buriednear the Tower of London the skeleton of a thirty-one-year-old woman was marked with metastatic lesions. We even know her name from a lead coffin plate:Ann Sumpter. She died on May 25, 1794.
In 2001 archaeologistsexcavated a 2,700-year-old burial mound in theRussian republic of Tuva, where nomadic horsemen called theScythians once thundered across the Eurasian steppes, their leaders exquisitely dressed in gold. Digging down through two wooden ceilings,the scientists came upon a subterranean chamber. Its floor, covered with a black felt blanket, cushioned two skeletons. Crouched together like lovers, both man and woman wore what remained of their royal vestments. Around the man’s neck was a heavy band of twisted gold decorated with a frieze of panthers, ibex, camels, and other beasts. Near his head lay pieces of a headdress: four gold horses and a deer. Golden panthers, more than 2,500 of them, bedecked his cape. His riches couldn’t save him. When he died—he appeared to have been in his forties—his skeleton was infested with tumors. A pathological analysis, including a close look with a scanningelectron microscope, concluded that the nature of the lesions and the pattern of their spread were characteristic of metastaticprostate cancer. Biochemical tests revealed high levels of prostate-specific antigen, or PSA. For all the false positives these tests can produce, this result was apparently genuine.
Metastasizing prostate cancer has been diagnosed inthe partially cremated pelvis of a first-century Roman and ina skeleton from a fourteenth-century graveyard in Canterbury. While prostate cancer tends to beosteoblastic, adding unwanted mass to the skeleton,breast cancer isosteolytic, gnawing mothlike at thebone. Of all cancers, prostate and breastshow the strongest appetite for skeletal tissue. Depending on the gender of the victim they are the first choice for diagnosis when bone metastases are found.
A middle-aged woman with osteolytic lesions was excavated from the northern Chilean Andes where she had died around 750 A.D. Her desiccated body was buried in a mummy pack along with her possessions: three woolen shirts, some feathers, corncobs, a wooden spoon, a gourd container, and a metal crucible. She was no Scythian queen. Her hair reached down her back in a long braid tied with a green cord. There were lesions in her spine, sternum, pelvis. On top of her skull, cancer had chomped a ragged hole 35 millimeters across. Cancer had feasted on her right femur, shortening her leg.
Osteolytic lesions are also found in
Multiple myeloma, a cancer ofplasma cells inbone marrow, can leave skeletal marks.Traces were found in the skull of a woman who lived in medieval times. Plasma cells are part of theimmune system and when behaving normally they produce antibodies calledimmunoglobulins. In multiple myeloma, one type is generated at the expense of the others. A chemical test found antibodies that the researchers considered confirmation of the disease.
Osteosarcoma, nasopharyngeal carcinoma, multiple myeloma—these areprimary cancers, those found at the site of origin. They are debilitating enough.Most skeletal cancers by far come from metastases originating elsewhere. They also show up with greater frequency in the fossil record—and with devastating results. Metastaticbone cancer has beendiscovered in Egyptian tombs,in a Portuguese necropolis, in a prehistoric gravein the Tennessee River valley,in a leper skeleton from a medieval cemetery in England. Buriednear the Tower of London the skeleton of a thirty-one-year-old woman was marked with metastatic lesions. We even know her name from a lead coffin plate:Ann Sumpter. She died on May 25, 1794.
In 2001 archaeologistsexcavated a 2,700-year-old burial mound in theRussian republic of Tuva, where nomadic horsemen called theScythians once thundered across the Eurasian steppes, their leaders exquisitely dressed in gold. Digging down through two wooden ceilings,the scientists came upon a subterranean chamber. Its floor, covered with a black felt blanket, cushioned two skeletons. Crouched together like lovers, both man and woman wore what remained of their royal vestments. Around the man’s neck was a heavy band of twisted gold decorated with a frieze of panthers, ibex, camels, and other beasts. Near his head lay pieces of a headdress: four gold horses and a deer. Golden panthers, more than 2,500 of them, bedecked his cape. His riches couldn’t save him. When he died—he appeared to have been in his forties—his skeleton was infested with tumors. A pathological analysis, including a close look with a scanningelectron microscope, concluded that the nature of the lesions and the pattern of their spread were characteristic of metastaticprostate cancer. Biochemical tests revealed high levels of prostate-specific antigen, or PSA. For all the false positives these tests can produce, this result was apparently genuine.
Metastasizing prostate cancer has been diagnosed inthe partially cremated pelvis of a first-century Roman and ina skeleton from a fourteenth-century graveyard in Canterbury. While prostate cancer tends to beosteoblastic, adding unwanted mass to the skeleton,breast cancer isosteolytic, gnawing mothlike at thebone. Of all cancers, prostate and breastshow the strongest appetite for skeletal tissue. Depending on the gender of the victim they are the first choice for diagnosis when bone metastases are found.
A middle-aged woman with osteolytic lesions was excavated from the northern Chilean Andes where she had died around 750 A.D. Her desiccated body was buried in a mummy pack along with her possessions: three woolen shirts, some feathers, corncobs, a wooden spoon, a gourd container, and a metal crucible. She was no Scythian queen. Her hair reached down her back in a long braid tied with a green cord. There were lesions in her spine, sternum, pelvis. On top of her skull, cancer had chomped a ragged hole 35 millimeters across. Cancer had feasted on her right femur, shortening her leg.
Osteolytic lesions are also found in
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