Leukemia in Neolithic Woman

Leukemia cells
-5000
BC

In 2015, researchers found what is believed to be the oldest known case of cancer in humans.  The cancer, leukemia, was identified in the skeletal remains of a woman who lived near present-day Stuttgart-Mühlhausen (Germany).1

 

Image credit: By See Source - A Surprising New Path to Tumor Development. PLoS Biol 3/12/2005: e433 doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0030433, CC BY 2.5