We came across posts on X claiming that cancer is a modern, man-made disease. The posts cite a 2010 article about a study examining cancer prevalence in the ancient world. According to the study, researchers investigated hundreds of Egyptian mummies and reportedly found only one case of cancer. Based on this, they hypothesised that modern, human-made carcinogenic factors have significantly increased cancer rates.
With the recent commemoration of World Cancer Day on 4 February 2025 and cancer being one of the leadingcauses of death in Singapore, we decided to take a closer look at the claim and the risk factors of cancer to see what we can learn.
Cancer in ancient times
The study titled “Cancer: an Old Disease, a New Disease or Something in Between?” was published in 2010. Conducted by Dr Rosalie David from the University of Manchester (UK) and Dr Michael Zimmerman from Villanova University (U.S.), the research was designed to understand the history of cancer. By studying its prevalence in ancient populations, the researchers sought to better understand the causes of the disease, its development, and potential strategies for prevention and treatment.
Researchers focused on ancient Egypt and Greece, as these two historically significant societies held a wealth of potential databanks, such as historical texts, art, and mummified corpses from ancient Egypt. Through their analysis, the researchers claimed that there were few references to cancer in literature and cultural artefacts from these two societies.
The researchers also employed paleopathological surveys on ancient skeletons and mummies, examining fossils, mummified tissue, and skeletal remains to better understand ancient diseases. Their findings revealed little evidence of cancer or tumours, leading them to conclude that cancer was a rare disease in the human antiquity age.
They also postulated that a much shorter life expectancy in ancient times, where males typically lived up to the age of 50 and females to the age of 30, could explain the lack of cancer or tumour evidence. However, the study noted that other research has found signs of degenerative diseases like arthritis and atherosclerosis in ancient remains, suggesting that some individuals lived long enough to develop age-related conditions. This implies that the rarity of tumours in ancient populations may be due to factors beyond just life expectancy.
In line with the study’s objectives, the researchers suggested that “modern lifestyle factors,” such as tobacco consumption and exposure to industrial pollutants, have transformed cancer from a rare condition into one of today’s leading causes of death.
However, some claims on social media have taken this narrative further, claiming that cancer is purely modern and man-made.
Is cancer a solely modern disease?
To verify the claim that cancer was extremely rare before the industrial era, we examined evidence of cancer diagnoses in other historic civilisations.
We found a response to Dr David and Dr Zimmerman’s study from a team of researchers in China. This response stated that the survey pool of ancient Egyptian and Greek artefacts was too narrow and did not consider evidence from other ancient societies like China. The researchers found that references to cancer could be found in Chinese oracles dating back to the fourteenth to eleventh century BCE. More notably, discussions on the “aetiology, pathology and symptoms of cancer” could be found in “Inner Canon of Yellow Emperor”, a medical text published between 475 – 221 BCE.
Meanwhile, a 2021 study by the University of Cambridge, found cancer rates in medieval Britain were around 10 times higher than previously believed. Earlier estimates, based on archaeological records and visual inspections, speculated that cancer affected roughly 1% of medieval Britons, a figure similar to the one reported in Dr David and Dr Zimmerman’s study. However, the Cambridge researchers employed radiological imaging to examine over 140 skeletons, revealing a much higher cancer prevalence, ranging between 9% and 14%.
Experts generally agree that cancer rates are higher in modern societies compared to the past. They believe that increased life expectancy is one factor contributing to these higher rates.
While cancer can affect people of all ages, it is typically considered a disease of older age, as the risk of developing cancer increases with age. The cells in our body accumulate damage over time. Cancer occurs when this damage builds up in the same cell. As we age, there is more time for this cellular damage to accumulate, increasing the likelihood of cancer development.
According to the Singapore Cancer Registry, which analysed cancer incidence and mortality in Singapore between 1968 and 2022, the majority of cancer cases are diagnosed after the age of 50, both globally and in Singapore. Other contributing risk factors include lifestyle choices, such as smoking and alcohol consumption, as well as environmental exposures, such as UV radiation.
We also found a response from Dr David and Dr Zimmerman, where they clarified that they did not “claim that cancer is entirely man-made, but rather that the high incidence of cancer in modern populations is significantly higher than that seen in the ancient Egyptian mummies”.
Given that the authors of the original study have refuted the claim that cancer is solely a modern, man-made disease, and other studies have found evidence of cancer in ancient societies, we rate the claim that cancer is an entirely modern, man-made disease as false.
