November 20, 2025
“There is no treatment.”— Edwin Smith Papyrus, c. 1600 BC
“Cancer was practically unknown until compulsory vaccination with cowpox vaccine began to be introduced. I have had to deal with at least two hundred cases of cancer, and I never saw a case of cancer in an unvaccinated person.”— Dr. W.B. Clarke, Indianapolis, 1909
“Despite decades of research and over $100 billion spent, the death rate for cancer has decreased by only 5 percent since 1950.”— Dr. Thomas Seyfried, Boston College, 2024
[2025: Cancer surpasses heart disease as #1 killer of Americans under 85. Glioblastoma survival unchanged since 1971]
[Part 1 of 6]
New parts publish every Tuesday and Thursday at 10AM EST
I once helped a friend beat stage 4 cancer. Not “manage it.” Beat it.
He’d fought lymphoma four times in seven years. Each relapse came faster, meaner. When I found him in the hospital, just before the hospitals shutdown visitations due to COVID, a sinus infection had spread to his kidneys. Fifty pounds of water weight had accumulated from his ribcage down, his body swelling like a victim drowning internally. His spleen (the master cylinder of the lymphatic system) was bloated with cancerous cells the size of Nerf football. He looked at me with the eyes of a man who’d already made peace with dying and willed my his entire music collection, his most prized possesion.
I slipped him a mega-dose of liposomal vitamin C.
Within days, his spleen began shrinking. Not symptom relief. Not “quality of life improvement.” The cancer itself was responding.
A few months later I drove him home. “This is good,” I told him, “but we’re going keto. One meal a day.” His hormones were too wrecked from years of the Standard American Diet (SAD) to manage that, but he agreed to an 8-hour eating window and low-carb meals.
Five years later, he’s been cancer-free all this time. His previous pattern was a recurrence every 1.75 years like clockwork. That pattern is broken.
The medical establishment would call this anecdotal. They’d point to his maintenance chemo drips (yeah, he still does them, working on getting off entirely) and credit those. But here’s the thing: the previous four recurrences all happened under standard chemo protocols. Same drugs. Same doses. Four failures in seven years.
Then we added metabolic interventions. Suddenly the chemo that failed four times started working. The drugs didn’t change. His metabolism did. The vitamin C, fasting, and carb restriction made his cancer cells vulnerable to the same chemo that couldn’t touch them before.
If this works in stage 4 lymphoma after four recurrences, why isn’t anyone studying it?
Why does modern medicine treat cancer as an infinitely complex genetic puzzle requiring infinitely expensive drugs, when simple metabolic changes show results?
The answer starts with a question we rarely ask: Was cancer always with us?
Modern oncology tells a authorative story from the religion of our age, science. Cancer has always plagued humanity, they say. We’re only seeing more of it because we live longer and have better diagnostics. This narrative is convenient. It justifies the failure of the 50-year, multi-trillion-dollar “War on Cancer” that has moved the needle up, not down, on mortality rates. This narrative is a comforting lie.
The archaeological record tells a different story.
The bones don’t lie.
The Silence of Ancient Bones
Strip away the soft tissue, wait five thousand years, and here’s what remains: bone. Weathered, mineralized, permanent. And bone tells tales.
Paleopathology (the study of ancient disease) provides the most objective window into antiquity we possess. Soft-tissue tumors rot. But bone cancers? Metastatic lesions? Those leave signatures. Permanent ones. If cancer were just the inevitable wear and tear of aging, ancient skeletons should be riddled with it.
They aren’t.
Yes, most cancers start in soft tissue and many killed through organ failure before reaching bone. But even accounting for this timeline, the bone cancer rate in antiquity was infinitesimal.
Researchers examined 484 individuals from Egypt’s Middle and New Kingdoms (2050 BC to 500 BC).¹ They found tuberculosis. Trauma. Scurvy. Anemia. The preservation was good enough to diagnose delicate metabolic conditions from subtle bone changes. Yet malignancy was virtually absent.
Think about that. If signs of anemia survived millennia, the gross destruction caused by metastatic bone cancer should be screaming from every other skeleton.
Silence.
The most ancient evidence of cancer in humans is a bone tumor in a Neanderthal rib from Croatia, dated to 120,000 years ago.² In the entire global bioarchaeological record (every excavation, every tomb, every mass grave) researchers have identified approximately 200 potential cancer cases.³
A single modern metropolitan hospital exceeds that in a week.
The counterargument you’ll hear is “short lifespans.” It’s a demographic lie. Yes, average life expectancy was low, but that’s because infant mortality was catastrophic. Individuals who survived childhood regularly reached their 60s and 70s.⁴ Ancient Egyptian mummies show arthritis. Arterial hardening. The unmistakable signatures of age. What they rarely show is cancer.
Modern CT scanning of mummies has identified a handful of cases. Prostate cancer in a Ptolemaic mummy from 285-230 BC.⁵ A few others. These exceptions prove the rule. A study of medieval British skeletons found cancer prevalence at death of 3.5% to 4.7%, compared to 40-50% in modern Britain.⁶
That’s a tenfold difference.
Age doesn’t explain that. Diagnostics don’t explain that. The bones themselves testify: cancer was rare.
What the Ancient Physicians Saw
The written record corroborates the bones.
The ancient Egyptians were skilled anatomists. They dissected bodies for mummification as routinely as we file taxes. Their medical texts are comprehensive, meticulous. The Edwin Smith Papyrus (copied around 1600 BC from a text possibly dating to 3000 BC) describes a “bulging tumor of the breast” that was cool to the touch.⁷
The physician’s conclusion: “There is no treatment.”
Here’s what matters: the scarcity. The papyri overflow with prescriptions. Parasites. Eye infections. Fractures. Crocodile bites. Hundreds of remedies. But cancer? References are rare. The Egyptians had no unified term for “cancer” as a disease category. They described individual tumors as distinct, uncommon phenomena, like documenting a two-headed calf rather than managing a herd.
In Classical Greece, Hippocrates introduced the term karkinos (Greek for crab) to describe ulcerating tumors whose swollen veins resembled crab legs sprawling from the center.⁸ Galen distinguished malignant tumors from benign swellings, giving us the root for “oncology.” Celsus advised against surgery on established tumors, noting it often hastened death.⁹
But here’s the tell: Hippocratic and Galenic texts devote vastly more space to fevers and trauma. Cancer wasn’t a priority. It wasn’t an epidemic. It was a curiosity.
The pattern repeats across continents. China’s Huangdi Neijing from the 3rd century BC classified tumors based on texture, attributing them to stagnation of Qi and blood.¹⁰ India’s Sushruta Samhita from around 700 BC described arbuda (malignant tumors) as systemic disruptions, even documenting surgical excision with arsenic cautery.¹¹ This shows cross-cultural medical sophistication and exchange.
Yet the volume dedicated to cancer is minuscule compared to dysentery, leprosy, fever.
Cancer existed. But it was rare enough to be noteworthy, not routine.
The Baseline: What Normal Looks Like
The ancient record establishes a baseline. For the overwhelming majority of human history, cancer was:
* Rare: Fewer than 200 cases documented across all ancient civilizations combined
* Noteworthy: Medical texts treated it as unusual, not routine clinical practice
* Age-independent: When it appeared, it wasn’t exclusively in the elderly
* Distinct from aging: Ancient populations showed arthritis and arterial hardening without corresponding cancer rates
This baseline matters. It means cancer is not an inevitable consequence of cellular aging or biological complexity. If it were, we’d see it consistently across every aging population in history.
We don’t.
The paleopathological evidence is unambiguous: something changed. Cancer went from rare curiosity to leading cause of death. The medical establishment attributes this to better diagnostics and longer lifespans. But medieval populations who survived childhood lived into their 70s and still showed cancer prevalence ten times lower than today.
The bones don’t lie. Cancer was rare for 99.9% of human history.
The Questions the Evidence Demands
If cancer isn’t inevitable aging or cellular complexity, what is it?
If populations living into old age throughout history didn’t develop cancer at modern rates, what changed?
If ancient physicians across multiple civilizations (Egyptian, Greek, Chinese, Indian) all documented cancer as rare, when did it become common?
The answer isn’t genetics. Ancient humans had the same genes we do.
The answer isn’t lifespan. They lived long enough to develop cancer but didn’t.
The answer isn’t diagnostic capabilities. Bone lesions from metastatic cancer are gross, visible, permanent.
The answer lies in environment.
My friend’s lymphoma responded to metabolic intervention because cancer is fundamentally a disease of metabolic dysfunction, not genetic inevitability. His body had the same genes before and after vitamin C. His cancer cells had the same mutations. What changed was the metabolic environment. When we restricted glucose, restored circadian rhythm through time-restricted eating, and flooded his system with high-dose antioxidants, his cancer cells lost their growth advantage.
The archaeological record suggests the same principle applies at the civilizational level. When human metabolic environments changed (when we introduced novel substances, disrupted ancestral eating patterns, altered our relationship with light and darkness) cancer rates exploded.
The ancient baseline shows us what normal looks like. It’s not 40-50% cancer prevalence at death. It’s closer to 3-5%.
We broke something. And the break shows up in the bones.
What Comes Next
So when did cancer become common?
The answer lies in specific historical inflection points: moments when the introduction of industrial toxins and dietary shifts fundamentally altered human metabolism. These weren’t gradual changes. They were sharp breaks visible in mortality statistics.
In Part 2, we’ll examine the first documented cases of environmental cancer. Chimney sweeps in 18th-century London whose scrotal cancer proved that external chemicals could cause malignancy. We’ll follow the statistical trail through the Industrial Revolution as London’s Bills of Mortality captured cancer’s rise in real time. And we’ll meet the physicians who first hypothesized what the medical establishment still denies: cancer is a disease of civilization, not complexity.
The silence of ancient bones is deafening. For 99.9% of human history, cancer was rare.
Understanding why it was rare is the key to understanding what went wrong.
And how to fix it.
This is Part 1 of a 6-part investigative series examining cancer as a disease of civilization. Part 2 will cover the Industrial Revolution’s inflection points, from chimney sweeps to Paris mortality statistics, revealing when and how cancer became epidemic.
Disclaimer: This article presents a personal account and historical analysis. It is not medical advice. Individual results vary. Consult healthcare providers before making treatment decisions. The case study described is anecdotal evidence (n=1) and should be considered alongside the broader archaeological and historical evidence presented.
Footnotes
* Paleopathology of ancient Egyptian mummies and skeletons - Systematic analysis of 484 Egyptian skeletal remains from Middle and New Kingdoms (2050-500 BC) showing extensive evidence of tuberculosis, trauma, metabolic diseases, but virtually no malignancy despite excellent preservation. Nerlich AG, Rohrbach H, Zink A (2002) Pathologe 23(5):379-85. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12376865/
* Earliest evidence of cancer in Neanderthal rib - 120,000-year-old Neanderthal rib from Krapina, Croatia showing fibrous dysplasia, the oldest known cancer in the human lineage. Establishes cancer’s existence in antiquity while confirming its extreme rarity. Source: University of Kansas, https://archive.news.ku.edu/2013/june/6/neanderthal.shtml
* On the Antiquity of Cancer: Evidence for Metastatic Carcinoma - Comprehensive review of bioarchaeological evidence documenting approximately 200 potential cancer cases across all ancient civilizations globally, contrasting with modern hospitals seeing hundreds weekly. Binder et al. (2014) PLOS ONE 9(3): e90924. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0090924
* An introduction to the history of infectious diseases - Demographic analysis showing that while average life expectancy was low due to infant mortality, individuals surviving childhood frequently reached 60-70 years in ancient populations. Refutes the “short lifespan” explanation for low ancient cancer rates. Davenport RJ, Satchell M, Shaw-Taylor LMW (2020) Economic History Review. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7404362/
* On the Antiquity of Cancer - Modern CT scanning study of mummies identifying rare cancer cases including prostate cancer in Ptolemaic period (285-230 BC), demonstrating both diagnostic capability and cancer’s rarity. Binder et al. (2014) PLOS ONE 9(3): e90924. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0090924
* The Prevalence of Cancer in Britain Before Industrialization - Study of medieval British skeletal remains showing cancer prevalence at death of 3.5% (detected) to 9-14% (projected) compared to modern Britain’s 40-50%, representing a significant increase that cannot be attributed solely to diagnostic improvements or aging. Mitchell PDR et al. (2021) Cancer 127(16):3041-3046. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33942897/
* Edwin Smith Papyrus - Ancient Egyptian surgical text (c. 1600 BC, copied from possibly 3000 BC original) describing a “bulging tumor of the breast” with conclusion “there is no treatment.” Demonstrates Egyptian anatomical knowledge and cancer’s documented rarity. SEER Training: Cancer History. https://training.seer.cancer.gov/disease/history/
* Cancer: A Historic Perspective - Historical analysis of Hippocrates (460-370 BC) introducing the term “karkinos” (Greek for crab) to describe ulcerating tumors whose swollen veins resembled crab legs, establishing Western medical terminology. SEER Training: Cancer History. https://training.seer.cancer.gov/disease/history/
* Ancient Greek and Greco-Roman Methods - Documentation of Galen (130-200 AD) distinguishing malignant tumors from benign swellings and Celsus (25 BC - 50 AD) advising against surgery on established tumors. Shows Greco-Roman medical sophistication and cancer’s relative rarity in clinical texts. Chouliaras K et al. (2010) Annals of Surgical Oncology 17(3):665-667. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2820670/
* Cancer Terminology in Chinese Medicine Texts - Analysis of Huangdi Neijing (Yellow Emperor’s Classic, 3rd century BC) classification of tumors based on texture, attributed to stagnation of Qi and blood. Demonstrates parallel Eastern medical documentation of cancer as uncommon. Journal of Acupuncture & Integrative Medicine. https://jaimonline.org/cancer-terminology-in-chinese-medicine-texts/
* Ayurveda and cancer - Documentation of Sushruta Samhita (c. 700 BC) describing arbuda (malignant tumors) as systemic imbalances, including surgical techniques with cautery and alkaline applications. Shows cross-cultural medical exchange and cancer’s minor role in ancient medical texts. Kataria et al. (2011) Pharmacognosy Reviews 5(10): 95-100. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3111701/
