Un enchondrome huméral vieux de 1700ans

A case of enchondroma from Carolingian necropolis of St. Pere De Terrassa (Spain): An insight into the archaeological record

Enchondromas occur with an estimated modern incidence rate of 27.7% of benign bone tumors (Hauben and Hogendoorn, 2010), but few are represented in the paleopathological record. The medieval site of St. Pere in Spain has produced a convincing case. The diagnosis was confirmed by X-Ray, CT-scan and μ-CT scan. Therefore UF 755 from St. Pere - a male of more than 60 years old - can be confirmed as a femoral case of enchondroma, supported by evidence, in the paleopathological record.

[Lucy's cancer(s): A prehistorical origin?]

OBJECTIVES

The recent discovery of the earliest hominin cancer, a 1.7-million-year-old osteosarcoma from South Africa has raised the question of the origin of cancer and its determinants. We aimed to determine whether malignant and benign tumors exist in the past societies.

METHODS

A review of literature using Medline database and Google about benign and malignant tumors in prehistory and antiquity. Only cases with morphological and paraclinical analysis were included. The following keywords were used: cancer; paleopathology; malignant neoplasia; benign tumor; leiomyoma; myoma; breast cancer; mummies; soft tissue tumor; Antiquity.

RESULTS

Thirty-five articles were found in wich there were 34 malignant tumors, 10 benign tumors and 11 gynecological benign tumors.

CONCLUSIONS

The fact that there were some malignant tumors, even few tumors and probably underdiagnosed, in the past may be evidence that cancer is not only a disease of the modern world. Cancer may be indeed a moving target: we have likely predisposing genes to cancer inherited from our ancestors. The malignant disease could therefore appear because of our modern lifestyle (carcinogens and risk factors related to the modern industrial society).