Abstract
Historical sources furnish valuable, but only indirect data on occurrence of past malignant tumours, sometimes also on their kinds or therapy, but not on their morphology and frequency. In distinction to it, palaeopathology, using examination of finds of cancers by gross morphology, standard radiography, computed tomography, as well as light microscopy, scanning or transmission electron microscopy and laser confocal microscopy can distinguish malignant tumours from the benign ones, and both kinds of tumours from other pathological conditions.
Assembling results of our own investigation together with data on cases from the literature, we created a databasis of 183 skeletal finds from the Old World, divided into 5 diagnostic groups. Mean ages at death of the afflicted people for each group were determined.
Their geographic distribution comprised 20 European, 4 Asian and 2 African countries with the highest representation of finds from Ancient Egypt with Nubia.