How the ancient Egyptians treated cancer

When do you think the first evidence of cancer in humans was recorded?

The earliest written observation of cancer in humans comes from Egypt, although the word cancer was first used by Hippocrates much later. The Edwin Smith Papyrus, the oldest known surgical treatise on trauma, is a collection of 48 medical cases of injuries. The Papyrus, which is presumed to have been written by the architect-physician-statesman Imhotep, dates back to the Pyramid Age (around 3000 – 2500 BC) and provides the earliest description of human tumor. 

The historic two-volume translation of the papyrus by James Henry Breasted in 1929 offers a fascinating window into the practice of medicine and early evidence of tumor in ancient Egypt.

The papyrus provides case studies of several breast tumors. 

The ancient physician used ocular and tactile approaches to methodically examine and diagnose the tumors. The clinical texts of the cases, written in hieratic, describe several visual characteristics of tumors – swelling with pus spread over the breast, redness, penetration to the bone, inflammation, bulging tumor, and abscess in the breast. They also describe diverse tactile characteristics – hot tumors, cold tumors, oily tumors, solid tumors, patient with fever, lack of fever, and patient that shudders when the tumor is touched.

These accounts are astonishingly akin to descriptive data that a modern physician might summarize in their clinical text today.

The ancient physician used the visual and tactile characteristics of tumors to pursue treatment. 

The Papyrus provides the earliest reference to cauterization as surgical treatment for tumor. The ancient Egyptians were adept at bandaging and made effective use of this skill as a medical tool to cover the tumors and keep therapeutics (such as leaves or herbs) in place and as a surgical tool to mechanically retain the patient in a particular position for better healing.

The Papyrus also refers to a treatment involving binding the tumor with fresh meat (potentially for hemostasis) on the first day, followed by application of grease, honey, and lint every day (potentially as an ointment) until the patient recovers. While such treatment is likely to humor a modern physician, it suggests that the ancient physicians very likely understood the critical role of hemostasis, the importance of emollience, and the need to protect the tumor area from the environment for successful treatment delivery to the tumors.

The ancient physicians also used astringent to dry the wounds in the tumor. However, an interesting case is a bulging tumor with swellings spread over the breast and cool to the touch, for which the physician does not prescribe any treatment, possibly because this was an untreatable tumor at that time.

The oldest description of cancer goes back to 3000 BC in ancient Egyptian medical treatise known as the Edwin Smith Papyrus, although the word cancer was not used (Breasted 1991). The word cancer dates back to Hippocrates (460-370 BC).

Studies have found evidence of cancer in fossilized remains of dinosaurs, fish, and human skulls (Sefcakova et al 2001, Rothschild et al 2003, Capasso 2005).

Ancient Egyptians blamed cancer on the gods. Hippocrates theorized that an imbalance in bodily fluids led to cancer (ACS 2014), which remained unchallenged until the 16th century when scientists believed cancer to be a contagious disease.

Our understanding of blood circulation during the 17th century and surgery to treat cancer during the 18th century led to the theory that cancer grew from the lymph, a bodily fluid, thrown out by the blood (Bodell 2014).

During the 19th century, pathologists used microscopes to study cells in normal and cancer-affected human tissues extracted by surgeons, popularizing the theory that cancer grew from cell division (Underwood, n.d).