Evidence of cancer in Neanderthals

A tumor lying on the rib of a 120,000-year-old skeleton shows that at least one Neanderthal who had been cancerous seemed to only haunt modern humans.

The oldest historical cancer tumor - (Photo: PLoS ONE)

The discovery of bone tumors called osteosarcoma has officially pushed back the occurrence of this disease to more than 100,000 years.

According to a report on PLoS ONE, expert David Frayer of the University of Kansas (USA) and colleagues, while bone fibrosis is more common in modern times than other bone tumors, evidence of cancer form This letter is very rare in human fossil records.

' This case shows that Neanderthals, who live in a healthy environment, can still face the same type of cancer as humans today,' said Frayer.

Because the bone fragment, which was unearthed in Croatia, is an incomplete specimen, the researchers said it was not possible to assess the overall situation of the patient, as well as the effect of the tumor on. with the health of the subject.

Neanderthals have a life expectancy of only half the modern people in developed countries, and live in a completely different environment today.