News Anthropology

Oldest evidence of cancer in human family tree found

Abnormal growth in a 1.6-million- to 1.8-million-year-old toe bone was malignant tumor

toe bone

ANCIENT CANCER  A 1.6-million- to 1.8-million-year-old toe bone sports a large, bony growth that represents the earliest known case of a potentially fatal cancer in the human evolutionary family, researchers say.

P. Randolph-Quinney/UCLAN

By Bruce Bower

- More than 2 years ago

Cancer goes way, way back. A deadly form of this disease and a noncancerous but still serious tumor afflicted members of the human evolutionary family nearly 2 million years ago, two new investigations of fossils suggest.