‘Extraordinary’ Egyptian skull shows medical attempts to treat cancer more than 4,000 years ago

While treatment for cancer is pretty advanced nowadays, plans were put in place to treat it some 4,000 years ago.

Nowadays, those who are diagnosed with the terrible disease can often go through a round of chemotherapy.

But some 4,000 years ago that was far from a possibility, so those looking into the matter had to get creative.

And an 'extraordinary' Egyptian skull shows medical attempts to treat the deadly disease back then - and there's even evidence of people taking sick days while building the pyramids.

To be honest, we know from ancient texts that the Egyptians were particularly skilled at diseases.

In what particularly impressive at the time, Egyptians could identify, describe, and treat diseases, while even being able to put in dental fillings.

Scientists have examined an 'extraordinary' Egyptian skull. (Tondini, Isidro, Camarós, 2014)

Unfortunately, they couldn't treat the likes of cancer, but it certainly seems like they might have tried.

An international team of researchers has recently studied two human skulls, both of which are thousands of years old.

And the findings provide an interesting conclusion on how the Egyptians dealt with cancer.

Tatiana Tondini, a researcher at the University of Tübingen and author of the study, said: "This finding is unique evidence of how ancient Egyptian medicine would have tried to deal with or explore cancer more than 4,000 years ago.

"This is an extraordinary new perspective in our understanding of the history of medicine.

"We wanted to learn about the role of cancer in the past, how prevalent this disease was in antiquity, and how ancient societies interacted with this pathology."

The researchers examined two skulls at the University of Cambridge's Duckworth Collection.

Skull 236, dating from between 2687 and 2345 BCE, became of particular interest to experts.

Researchers could not quite believe what they discovered. (Tondini, Isidro, Camarós, 2014)

Microscopic observation on the skull showed a large-sized lesion consistent with excessive tissue destruction.

On top of that, there are around 30 small and round metastasized lesions across the skull.

Researchers discovered cut marks around these lesions, something likely made with a shark object.

"When we first observed the cut marks under the microscope, we could not believe what was in front of us," Tondini added.

Meanwhile, fellow author Prof Albert Isidro, a surgical oncologist at the University Hospital Sagrat Cor, said: "It seems ancient Egyptians performed some kind of surgical intervention related to the presence of cancerous cells, proving that ancient Egyptian medicine was also conducting experimental treatments or medical explorations in relation to cancer."

The results are pretty remarkable, though the study's lead author, Prof Edgard Camarós, says 'more studies will be needed to untangle how ancient societies dealt with cancer'.