Cancer rates in medieval Britain around ten times higher than previously thought, study suggests

EurekAlert! ^ | April 29, 2021 | University of Cambridge

[SunkenCiv]

The first study to use x-rays and CT scans to detect evidence of cancer among the skeletal remains of a pre-industrial population suggests that between 9-14% of adults in medieval Britain had the disease at the time of their death.

This puts cancer prevalence in a time before exposure to tumour-inducing chemicals from industry and tobacco at around ten times higher than previously thought, according to researchers.

Prior research into historic cancer rates using the archaeological record has been limited to examining the bone exterior for lesions. It suggested that cancer was rare, affecting less than 1% of the population.

[SunkenCiv]

Excavated medieval bone from the spine showing cancer metastases (white arrow) [Jenna Dittmar]

[SunkenCiv]

[Renfrew]

In that era everyone would have been around fires all the time. A lot of smoke inhalation.

[PeterPrinciple]

They would have had poor nutrition. We live a land of plenty and complain with our mouths full.

[Beowulf9]

Which is why I’m not going to Medieval Britain!

[Seruzawa]

I think you win the thread.

[bgill]

However, the researchers point out that in modern Britain some 40-50% of people have cancer by the time they die, making the disease 3-4 times more common today than the latest study suggests it was during medieval times.

Uh huh, 3-4 times more common today.... annnnd another invalid study. People live twice as long today than they did then.

[Blood of Tyrants]

If you managed to make it past the first five years of life, you had a decent chance to live into old age. The mortality rate of 0-5 year olds was near 50% which skewed the life expectancy charts.

[Varda]

Back then old was 60. Now we have have huge population over that age. Cancer is mostly a disease of people over 65.

[Verginius Rufus]

I saw a chart once showing life expectancies in the 18th century. Lots of people died in their 20s, 30s and 40s. If you lived to adulthood you had a 50% chance of surviving another 20 years.

According to the information in The World Almanac, Edward the Confessor died at 62 and was the longest-lived Anglo-Saxon king of England. The first king of England to live past 70 was George II, who lived to 77. The only ones to live past 80 so far are George III, Queen Victoria (both of whom died at 81) and the present queen.

[Beowulf9]