Just kidding….too funny to pass up. Where is the USPSTF when you need them? We can do MRI’s on 2000 year old Egyptians but don’t recommend PSAs on men in the U.S.A.
Mummy Had History’s Second-Oldest Prostate Cancer Case
By Heather Pringle, Science
Now
Some 2,250 years ago in Egypt, a man known today only as M1
struggled with a long, painful, progressive illness. A dull pain throbbed in his
lower back, then spread to other parts of his body, making most movements a
misery. When M1 finally succumbed to the mysterious ailment between the ages of
51 and 60, his family paid for him to be mummified so that he could be reborn
and relish the pleasures of the afterworld.
Now an international research team has
diagnosed what ailed M1: the oldest known case of prostate cancer in ancient
Egypt and the second oldest case in the world. (The earliest diagnosis of
prostate cancer came from the 2,700-year-old skeleton of a Scythian king in
Russia.) Moreover, the new study now in press in the International Journal of Paleopathology suggests that
earlier investigators may have underestimated the prevalence of cancer in
ancient populations because high-resolution computerized tomography (CT)
scanners capable of finding tumors measuring just 1 to 2 millimeters in diameter
only became available in 2005. “I think earlier researchers probably missed a
lot without this technology,” says team leader Carlos Prates, a radiologist in
private practice at Imagens Médicas Integradas in Lisbon.
Prostate cancer begins in the walnut-sized prostate gland,
an integral part of the male reproductive system. The gland produces a milky
fluid that is part of semen and it sits underneath a man’s bladder. In
aggressive cases of the disease, prostate cancer cells can metastasize, or
spread, entering the bloodstream and invading the bones. After performing
high-resolution scans on three Egyptian mummies in the collection of the
National Archaeological Museum in Lisbon, Prates and colleagues detected many
small, round, dense tumors in M1’s pelvis and lumbar spine, as well as in his
upper arm and leg bones. These are the areas most commonly affected by
metastatic prostate cancer. “We could not find any evidence to challenge this
diagnosis,” Prates says.
“I would agree that it’s a case of metastatic prostate
cancer,” says Andreas Nerlich, a pathologist at the Academic Hospital
Munich-Bogenhausen in Germany, who was not involved in the research project.
“This is a very well-done study.”
Researchers have long struggled to detect evidence of cancer
in the skeletons and mummified flesh of the ancient dead. But recorded cases of
cancer in ancient populations are rare. Indeed, one study published in 1998 in
the Journal of Paleopathology calculated that just 176
cases of skeletal malignancies had been reported among tens of thousands of
ancient humans examined. The low number of cases prompted a theory that cancer
only began flourishing in the modern industrial age, when carcinogens became
more widespread in food and in the environment and when people began living
longer, giving tumors more time to grow and proliferate.
But ancient populations, says Albert Zink, a biological
anthropologist at the Institute for Mummies and the Iceman in Bolzano, Italy,
were no strangers to carcinogens. Soot from wood-burning chimneys and
fireplaces, for example, contains substances known to cause cancer in humans.
And the bitumen that ancient boat builders heated to seal and waterproof ships
has been linked to lung cancer as well as tumors in the respiratory and
digestive tracts. “I think cancer was quite prevalent in the past,” Zink says,
“more prevalent than we have been able to see.”
But that situation may be changing, Prates says, as physical
anthropologists gain access to the new generation of high-resolution CT
scanners. The equipment that Prates and his colleagues used to study M1, for
example, has a pixel resolution of 0.33 millimeters, allowing radiologists to
visualize even fleck-sized lesions.
For scientists studying the origins of cancer and the
complex interplay of environment, diet, and genes on the prevalence of the
disease, such improved detection could shed new light on a disease that has
plagued humanity for many thousands of years, if not longer. “And for sure
there’s always the hope that reaching a better understanding of the roots of
cancer will help contribute in some way to a cure,” Zink concludes.
Source: ScienceNOW
Prostate Diaries 
Not related to the above, but since you are discussing the worlds OLDEST diagnosed case of prostate cancer, perhaps some thoughts about some of the youngest would be interesting. Does the “average” Urologist see much of this in his practice?
‘PHOENIX — D-backs team president and CEO Derrick Hall, 42, will undergo surgery for prostate cancer Tuesday.’
No mention has been made of the PSA level or Biopsy result, but this sounds aggressive.
http://arizona.diamondbacks.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20111107&content_id=25929028&vkey=news_ari&c_id=ari
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I personally have had a 38 year old patient who by mistake had a PSA done at the time of a job physical that was elevated and subsequently had PC. You are correct…as a rule the younger the diagnosis the more aggressive the disease. I spent some time once researching the “youngest” prostate cancer patient and found several where in early teens etc…but they were prostate cancer variants atypical of what we see. Thanks for your comments. jm
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