Health
Ancient Egyptians attempted to surgically remove brain cancer from skull 4,000 years ago, study finds
Lesions found in ancient skulls suggest that cancer could have been a medical issue long before our time.
Ancient Egyptian skulls studied at the Duckworth Laboratory Collection at the University of Cambridge in the U.K. have shown signs of varying lesions, some believed to be left by malignant tumors.
The case report, published in the journal Frontiers in Medicine, found that a skull labeled E270, which belonged to a woman in her 50s, had healed cranial injuries made potentially by a sharp object.
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The evidence indicates that the woman survived, thanks to “some kind of treatment and degree of post-traumatic care,” the researchers wrote.
Skull 236, belonging to a male in his 30s, was shown to have cut marks on the bone surface that suggest a tumor had been removed.
Skull E270 is shown at the base of a microscope. The skull had healed cranial injuries potentially caused by a sharp object. (Tatiana Tondini, Albert Isidro, Edgard Camarós, 2024)
While these findings indicate “medical surgical exploration,” the researchers were unable to identify the timing of the cutting – before or after death.
“Applying scientific methodologies to archeology allows us to make new discoveries about the past.”
These surgical procedures could have been practiced during the Middle and Upper Paleolithic and Neolithic periods, the researchers concluded.
“In this context, it becomes clear that caring for others, including wound care, is a key behavior among humans that has also been observed in non-human primates,” they wrote.
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First study author Tatiana Tondini, a researcher at the University of Tübingen in Germany, discussed the results with Fox News Digital, noting that the most “remarkable finding” was the discovery of cut marks near “two secondary cancer lesions” on skull 236.
“They have been confirmed not to be taphonomic (environmental) damages, and there are two explanations for them,” she said.
Skull 236, pictured here, was shown to have two “secondary cancer lesions.” (Tatiana Tondini, Albert Isidro, Edgard Camarós, 2024)
The first possible explanation is that the ancient Egyptians attempted a surgical removal of the secondary tumors, “which would make it the first recorded cancer surgical operation in history, but we cannot confirm that,” Tondini said.
The second possibility is that the ancient Egyptians made those cut marks while examining the man after he passed away.
“Caring for others, including wound care, is a key behavior among humans.”
“This would also be remarkable, as it means that the ancient Egyptians were studying cancer,” the researcher said.
Another important discovery, according to Tondini, was the successful treatment of skull E270, which had traces of a lesion left by a sharp object like a sword or hatchet.
Skull E270, pictured here, had traces of a lesion left by a sharp object like a sword or hatchet. (Tatiana Tondini, Albert Isidro, Edgard Camarós, 2024)
“It is very unlikely that the individual would have made it without proper treatment,” she said.
“We can see that the individual survived, as the fracture has clear signs of healing, which means ancient Egyptians were able to treat severe cranial fractures.”
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An accident or act of domestic violence was the most likely cause of the woman’s head injury, according to Tondini, although the depth of the wound and the sign of brutality could point to a battle wound.
“If that is the case, we should reconsider the role of women in Ancient Egypt,” she said. “It is known that women had more rights in Ancient Egypt compared to Rome and Greece, but warfare duties have always been associated with men.”
A fragment of wall painting depicts the transport of ointments, found in the tomb of Metchetchi at Saqqara in Egypt. (DEA/G. DAGLI ORTI/De Agostini via Getty Images)
As the skulls were “very old” and “very fragile,” Tondini said it was difficult to assess the damage with the naked eye.
“But using a powerful microscope, it was possible to characterize most lesions,” she said. “For some more complex ones, the micro-CT scan allowed us to analyze the internal structure of a lesion and determine its cause.”
‘Cancer culture’
Based on the findings from skull 236, the researchers believe that cancer is not only a modern disease caused by unhealthy lifestyles and exposure to carcinogens, but that it was also present in ancient populations — though at lower rates, according to Tondini.
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Tondini admitted that she and her fellow researchers did not expect these findings before investigating these two “very rare” pieces of history.
“I remember I was analyzing skull 236 with the microscope to characterize its lesions,” she told Fox News Digital. “When I got to the first lesion that had those cut marks, I initially was a bit unsure of what I was looking at.”
A lesion inside skull 236 shows cut marks identified under the microscope. (Tatiana Tondini, Albert Isidro, Edgard Camarós, 2024)
“I asked my colleague, Dr. Camaros, who was also very surprised about the discovery,” she continued. “We characterized the cut marks and confirmed they were manmade and occurred before or immediately after the death of the individual.”
Within a few minutes, Tondini said, the laboratory was “filled with other researchers, technicians and professors, who were all around the microscope looking at the lesions and could not believe their eyes.”
Neurosurgeon’s take
Dr. Paul Saphier, M.D., a neurosurgeon and founder of Coaxial Neurosurgical Specialists in New Jersey, commented that while this new research is interesting, there has been similar evidence of neurosurgical procedures dating back to the Mesolithic period, around 6000 B.C.
“These early surgeries [known as trepanning] were usually small holes in the skull with limited surgical extent,” Saphier, who was not involved in the skull research at hand, told Fox News Digital.
A medieval surgeon performs a “trepanning” operation on a patient’s skull, circa 1350. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
“Clearly, our ability to perform complex neurosurgical procedures was limited by technology, mostly radiographic (CT/MRI imaging) and direct surgical visualization.”
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The neurosurgeon added, “With these advances, as well as anesthesia and critical care medicine, we have been able to tackle more sophisticated cases, large in scope and extent.”
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In an “ironic twist,” he said, recently there’s been a “tremendous reversal toward a more minimally invasive approach” in cranial neurosurgery.
“This has been heralded by newer tech and an outspoken group of advanced cranial neurosurgeons championing these advances, of which I am proud to be a member of,” Saphier added.
Skull 236, at left, and skull E270, right, revealed interesting findings about ancient medicine. (Tatiana Tondini, Albert Isidro, Edgard Camarós, 2024)
“So ironically, what is old may … actually be new again.”
Tondini said she hopes the study findings will inspire more research on “cancer cases in antiquities using non-destructive techniques.”
“For other researchers and the public, applying scientific methodologies to archeology allows us to make new discoveries about the past,” she said.
Over the two and a half years following the 2022 rollout of the 988 national suicide prevention hotline, the rate of suicides among young people in the United States dropped 11 percent below projections, decreasing most sharply in states with a higher volume of answered 988 calls, a new study has found.
The findings, published today as a research letter in JAMA, compared suicide deaths from July 2022 to December 2024 with sophisticated mathematical projections that were based on historical trends. This yielded good news, with 4,372 fewer suicides of adolescents and young adults, ages 15 to 34, than had been projected.
To ensure that the decline was related to the use of the hotline, researchers at Harvard Medical School teased out the trends in states with high and low usage of the hotline. The findings were striking: The 10 states with the largest increases in 988 calls experienced an 18.2 percent reduction in observed suicides compared with expected suicides; in the 10 states with the lowest uptake, the reduction was smaller, 10.6 percent.
The results suggest that the government’s investment in the 988 rollout has translated into “a measurable reduction of deaths,” said Dr. Vishal Patel, a resident physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and one of the authors of the study.
“What our study has added,” he said, “is evidence for the deeper benefit of the program, and that is, that at the population level, among young people at least, suicide mortality is lower than it would have been without the program.”
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He added, “The implication of that is that sustained funding for this program matters.”
The United States rolled out the three-digit hotline with bipartisan support in July 2022, replacing a 10-digit hotline number, and augmented it with a $1.5 billion investment in crisis center capacity. Since its inception, the service has fielded more than 25 million contacts, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. The agency has asked Congress for $534.6 million to fund the program for 2027.
Last summer, the Trump administration terminated one element of the hotline, the Press 3 option for L.G.B.T.Q.+ callers. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration said that the Press 3 option was being discontinued because it had exhausted its funding from Congress and that the hotline would “focus on serving all help seekers.”
But advocacy groups and policymakers protested the decision, and in testimony before the Senate on Tuesday, the health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., said his agency was planning to restore the Press 3 option.
Dr. Patel said his group had become curious about measuring the program’s effectiveness after Press 3 was eliminated. While call volume and satisfaction surveys suggested that 988 was succeeding, he said, the harder question was, “Did the creation of this 988 program, the transition from the old hotline to this hotline, actually move the needle on suicide mortality?”
Experts said it was difficult to tease out the beneficial effect of 988 from other things that changed in 2022, the year that the new hotline was created. Around that time, suicide prevention programs were being introduced in schools, in faith communities and on social media, but more important, the pandemic was ending.
“We were finally out of this crazy time, and there was a sense of optimism and hope,” said Jonathan B. Singer, a professor of social work at Loyola University Chicago and a co-author of “Suicide in Schools.” He called the downward trend in youth suicides “encouraging, but it is tempered by the fact that we don’t have a good explanation as to why.”
The authors acknowledged that their findings could not account for the influence of social and economic changes, changes in mental health services or public awareness about services.
But they did make comparisons to exclude other possible explanations. The authors looked for similar effects among American adults over 65, who are less likely to use the hotline. In that group, there was a reduction in suicides that exceeded expectations, but it was smaller, at just 4.5 percent.
To ensure the decline in suicides did not reflect a general improvement in young-adult mortality, the researchers tracked cancer deaths, and found there was no change. They also looked at the rates of suicide among young people in England, where no change had been made to the national crisis line in that time period; they found no reduction in youth suicides there.
Hannah Wesolowski, chief advocacy officer for the National Alliance on Mental Illness, said she was persuaded that the hotline had contributed to the improvement in suicide rates, in part because it did not appear among English youths or in older Americans.
“To me, that really helps hone in that this might really be the differentiator,” she said. “We are seeing potentially a pretty significant decline in suicides among young people. For public policy, this is strong evidence to double down on that we are doing.”
Emily Hilliard, a senior press secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services, said H.H.S. and SAMHSA are “committed to ensuring that all Americans have access” the 988 line, which she said “clearly provides lifesaving support, helping millions of people every year.”
If you are having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for a list of additional resources.
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A highly contagious digestive virus is surging across the U.S., experts warn.
Rotavirus, a double-stranded RNA virus, causes acute gastroenteritis — inflammation of the stomach and intestines — which can lead to severe diarrhea, vomiting, fever and stomach pain.
The virus primarily affects infants and young children, but there have also been outbreaks in elderly populations, such as nursing homes.
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Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that in the week ending April 4, out of 2,329 rotavirus tests, 7.3% were positive for the infection. Last year’s highest infection rate was 6.77% as of the week ending April 19.
Rotavirus, a double-stranded RNA virus, causes acute gastroenteritis — inflammation of the stomach and intestines — which can lead to severe diarrhea, vomiting, fever and stomach pain. (iStock)
“We’re seeing a lot of rotavirus in the wastewater right now,” Dr. Marc Siegel, Fox News senior medical analyst, confirmed to Fox News Digital. “Testing for rotavirus is way down, but the percentage of positive tests is up.”
While the virus typically peaks in the spring, it is not currently slowing down, he noted.
Why cases may be rising
Patricia Pinto-Garcia, M.D., a medical editor at GoodRx who is based in California, said there are several possible reasons for the rotavirus spike.
“Vaccine rates are down overall among young children, as they decreased during COVID,” she told Fox News Digital. “This means there’s a growing number of infants and young children who are vulnerable to infection.”
The rotavirus vaccine series must be completed by the time a child is 8 months old, she noted.
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As a result of the declining vaccinations, herd immunity isn’t protecting vulnerable children, according to Pinto-Garcia. “Children who haven’t finished the vaccine series yet, are too young to get vaccinated, or can’t get the vaccine due to medical illness are more likely to get exposed to the illness because other children aren’t vaccinated,” she said.
Siegel noted that before the vaccine became available, rotavirus resulted in 55,000 to 70,000 in the U.S. per year.
“Vaccine rates are down overall among young children, as they decreased during COVID,” a doctor told Fox News Digital. “This means there’s a growing number of infants and young children who are vulnerable to infection.” (iStock)
“I am concerned that the vaccination rate has been declining over the past seven years and is continuing to decline in the current climate of vaccine skepticism,” he said.
Surveillance methods are also much better than they used to be, Pinto-Garcia noted, which means public health experts are able to pick up and track cases better than ever before.
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“But we see that rotavirus-related healthcare visits are also up, so improved detection is not the only reason we are seeing this spike,” she said.
The COVID pandemic also disrupted the pattern of infections, according to Pinto-Garcia, so it’s “tricky” to compare the current levels against older cycles.
“It’s possible that what we are seeing is still some post-pandemic rebound, but it’s unlikely that this year’s pattern is fully explained by just this factor,” she added.
Transmission and risk
Dr. Zachary Hoy, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Pediatrix Medical Group based in Nashville, Tennessee, often sees young patients with rotavirus.
“Rotavirus is spread via the fecal-oral route, meaning that a person comes into contact with virus droplets from contact with other children or adults, or from contact with objects such as toys that have been contaminated with the virus from someone who is sick,” he told Fox News Digital. “This can lead to outbreaks, especially at schools where many young children share the same toys.”
“It’s possible that what we are seeing is still some post-pandemic rebound, but it’s unlikely that this year’s pattern is fully explained by just this factor.”
Rotavirus is associated with many dehydration cases in the hospital due to the degree of diarrhea, according to Hoy.
In some severe cases, the virus can lead to seizures due to electrolyte imbalances from dehydration and loss of electrolytes in the stool.
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“Younger children do not have the reserves that older children and adults have, so they can become more dehydrated quicker and develop more severe electrolyte imbalances, leading to more severe infections,” Hoy said.
“Patients with problems with their immune systems or on medications that can decrease their immune systems can have more severe and prolonged infections, too.”
Treatment and care
Because rotavirus is a viral infection, antibiotics are not effective against it. There is no specific antiviral treatment for the condition, with doctors typically recommending supportive care.
“The mainstay of treatment is hospitalization for rehydration via intravenous (IV) fluids,” Hoy told Fox News Digital. “Sometimes it can take up to two to three days of IV fluids to help get patients rehydrated.”
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Blood draws are often necessary to evaluate patients’ electrolyte levels, such as sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium, according to the doctor.
“If these electrolyte levels are significantly low, sometimes patients need special IV solutions or individual electrolyte medications,” he added.
“The mainstay of treatment is hospitalization for rehydration via intravenous (IV) fluids,” a doctor told Fox News Digital. (iStock)
Dr. Daniel Park, medical director of the Pediatric Emergency Department at UNC Health in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, noted that most children recover with supportive care, but parents should seek medical attention if a child shows signs of dehydration. Those include decreased urination, lethargy or inability to keep fluids down.
“While rare, rotavirus can be life-threatening in vulnerable populations, especially very young infants or children with underlying medical conditions,” Park told Fox News Digital.
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Prevention strategies
Given the lack of antiviral medications for rotavirus, doctors emphasize the importance of prevention, primarily the vaccine.
There are two rotavirus vaccines – Rotateq (a three-dose series) and Rotarix (a two-dose series). They are given starting at age 2 months as oral drops, not injections, according to Hoy.
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“It’s important to get the rotavirus vaccines on schedule, because these younger infants are at greatest risk if they get rotavirus,” he advised.
Other recommended prevention methods include handwashing with soap and water.
Every day we’re faced with a zillion small choices: Go to sleep early, or watch one more episode of that Netflix drama. Call an old friend to catch up, or cruise social media. Of course, no single action will guarantee a long, healthy life or doom you to an early grave. But those little daily decisions do add up, and over the long term they can make a difference when it comes to both your longevity and your health span, the amount of life spent in relatively good health.
Scroll through this theoretical “day in the life” and select the option that best fits your typical day. Not every situation will apply perfectly, but think about which choice you’d be most likely to make. This isn’t a formal scientific assessment. The goal here isn’t to assign you a “good” or “bad” score, but to help you understand the central factors that shape the way we age and how long we live.
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