It Might Get Messy

Prehistoric and archaeological cancers are difficult for science to get a handle on. The vast majority of cancers involve soft tissues that are badly preserved (in mummies and rare frozen cadavers) or not preserved at all (in fossils). As might be expected in the somewhat frazzled social systems that are the world of science, this hasn’t prevented people from attempting to draw conclusions. These range from ridiculously non-credible to rational, but still uncertain. 

In the former category, there is an idiot woman on the Faculty of Life Sciences at the University of Manchester in the UK who says, regarding the few identifiable cancers in bodies dating to ancient Greco-Roman times: “In industrialised societies, cancer is second only to cardiovascular disease as a cause of death. But in ancient times, it was extremely rare. There is nothing in the natural environment that can cause cancer. So it has to be a man-made disease, down to pollution and changes to our diet and lifestyle.” [1]. This statement is so ridiculously and dangerously untrue that it merits severe debunking. That debunking was done by Bruce Ames (cross-reference last week’s entry in this weblog) and associates, who documented with devastating accuracy and highly credible research that the vast majority of human environmental cancers are triggered by natural, not man-made industrial, chemicals [2]. Although that figure DOES include tobacco and alcohol use, both of which are potent carcinogens, albeit derived from biological sources. It is worth quoting the blunt conclusions of the Ames group researches: 

There is no convincing evidence that synthetic chemical pollutants are important as a cause of human cancer. Regulations targeted to eliminate low levels of synthetic chemicals are expensive. The Environmental Protection Agency has estimated that environmental regulations cost society $140 billion/year. Others have estimated that the median toxic control program costs 146 times more per hypothetical life-year saved than the median medical intervention. Attempting to re- duce tiny hypothetical risks has other costs as well: if reducing synthetic pesticides makes fruits and vegetables more expensive, thereby decreasing consumption, then the cancer rate will in- crease, especially for the poor. The prevention of cancer will come from knowledge obtained from biomedical research, education of the public, and lifestyle changes made by individuals. A re-examination of priorities in cancer prevention, both public and private, seems called for.

Did I mention that Ames scrupulously refuses to accept funding from the industrial private sector? He has no skin in the game beyond the search for truth and proper prioritizing of environmental management investments. 

Anyway. Per the first paragraph of this piece above, evidence of past soft-tissue cancers per se in human beings is rare because soft tissues don’t preserve well. However, when soft-tissue cancers anastomose (spread from their origin), the do sometimes leave evidence in skeletons. Thus, it has been possible to estimate archaic cancer rates from skeletons. A Neanderthal rib tumor was recently documented, given the short life expectancy of members of the genus Homo at the time, this suggests that cancers were surprisingly prevalent [3]. One Anne Sumter, dead at 31 and interred in a cemetery near the Tower Bridge in London in 1794, had a metastesis suggesting acute lung cancer [4]. A collection of more than 3000 skeletons from Croatian ossuaries ranging from 5000 B.C. to the 19th century suggest that cancer rates were low, but that short life expectancies (i.e., people died of other diseases, accident, or conflict long before cancers would be expected to appear in their aging bodies), vs. actual cancer incidence, were the primary reason [5]. The New York Times ran an article that can probably serve as the definitive assessment of ancient cancers [6]. The conclusion? Cancers were probably somewhat less common in ancient times than they are today, because tobacco and alcohol use, longer life spans, and better diagnostics inevitably increase identified malignancies. But, as one of the researchers stated, “if we live long enough, we’ll all get cancer”. True whether you were around in the time of Christ or here in the 21st century.

And why am I subjecting you to this technical blather in what should be a quick and easy informal weblog read? Because I’m giving myself a treat this year. All the medical evidence compiled over the past 4 years suggested that I should be dead or dying by now. But I’m not. In fact, yesterday I had the oddest feeling. I realized I felt healthy, and normal, in ways I have not felt since this nightmare cancer war broke out years ago. I was comfortable, pain-free, and quite, well, feeling good. I seem to have passed some physiological threshold back to the land of the living from the no-man’s land of the doomed and the struggling. Weird. But, believe me, incredibly welcome.

So, for the upcoming holidays, I’m letting myself crack my bible to read Genesis, the four Gospels, and the Revelation of John early—like this evening. I read these pieces every year between Thanksgiving and my January birthday. If you’re an agnostic nonbeliever like me, that’s pretty much all the bible you need, or can likely tolerate. Still, it gives me a nice ritual to look forward to every year.

And this year, I’m going to revel in it, celebrate it. Simply because I’m here to do it, and not a carton of ashes and teeth on a shelf in the basement. 

Crank up the holidays early and hearty, my friends. Every year we’re here for one more is a spit in the face of the cold universe of inevitable, entropy-driven decay. 

Oh. One more thing. The last overseas trip I’ll probably manage in my remaining life was to the remote southern Philippines a year + ago. While Mindanao (where I was) missed the brunt of this most recent storm, it was clear from our work with the displaced from a prior typhoon that a storm surge of any meaningful magnitude would kill thousands and displace tens of thousands of impoverished people living in riverbottoms and along tidal waterways. Those of us in the hygienic, cozy, comfortable, wealthy west are very, very lucky. But the people of the rural Philippines were, as I’ve found throughout the world, incredibly resilient, cheerful, and gleefully ironic about their circumstances. Those qualities will stand the people devastated by Typhoon Haiyan in good stead as they grieve for their losses and recover their lives. Everyone reading this blog should go to Stephen Colbert’s web portal and text a donation to help out. I haven’t been proud of much about being an American over this past complicated year. But the fact that a U.S. Air Craft Carrier Battle Group could get in place in the remote Philippines in a matter of days and start producing 100,000 gallons of potable water per day for the impacted populace makes me very, very proud. Every bit of aid that makes it to the people is likely to save a life. And that’s just awesome. 

 I leave you with some of the best photographs I got on my life-changing trip to the Philippines in the interim of my cancer battle. Remember that in most browsers, if you click or double-click the photographs, you can view them in a larger format.

My love and gratitude to all of you and yours. High fives all around just for being here for one more smegging year on earth!

Notes

[1] http://phys.org/news/2010-10-scientists-cancer-purely-man-made.html

[2] Gold, L.S., B.N. Ames, and T.H. Slone 2002. Misconceptions about the causes of cancer. In Human and Environmental Risk Assessment, edited by D. Paustenbach, Wiley & Sons, NY.

[3] http://popular-archaeology.com/issue/june-2013/article/bone-tumor-found-in-neanderthal-rib

[4] http://www.aocarchaeology.com/key-projects/research-key-projects/cancer-in-the-18th-century-a-case-from-all-hallows-london

[5] http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/07/0713_040713_skeletoncancer.html

[6] http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/28/health/28cancer.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0