A rare deadly disease has been discovered that could have killed the world’s first pregnant Egyptian mummy

A study in Poland found that the first 2000-year-old pregnant Egyptian mummy may have died from a rare type of cancer when she was 28 weeks pregnant.

According to a study conducted by Polish scientists on the skull of an ancient corpse, the team discovered unusual marks on the bones similar to those found in nasopharyngeal cancer patients. The scientists concluded that the mummy probably died of the same disease.

Nasopharyngeal cancer is a rare type of cancer that affects the part of the throat that connects the back of the nose to the back of the mouth. The disease occurs in the nasopharynx, upper pharynx, or throat, where the nasal passages and auditory canals contain the rest of the upper respiratory tract.

Scientists know that the mummy, who has been called a “mystery woman” since its discovery, died within 28-weeks of her pregnancy, but so far they have not been able to determine the cause of death.

Photos from the Warsaw Mummy Project at the University of Warsaw (WMP) in Poland show a skull with lesions most likely caused by a tumor and large defects in bone parts that do not normally form during the procedures of embalming.

“There are unusual changes in the bones of the nasopharynx, which, according to mummy experts, are not typical for the mummification process,” said Professor Ravi Steke of the Department of Oncology at the Medical University of Warsaw, who worked with project experts. Second, the opinions of radiologists based on computed tomography indicate the possibility of tumor changes in the bone.

Professor Stick added that the mummy’s young age and no other cause of death indicated ‘tumors’.

Scientists now plan to collect tissue samples and compare them to cancer samples from other Egyptian mummies.

By unveiling the ‘molecular signature’ of cancer, it is hoped that it will expand knowledge on the development of cancer and contribute to the development of modern medicine.

Further investigations can also determine the cause of oropharyngeal cancer – whether it is associated with a viral or genetic infection, for example.

The mummy of the “Mysterious Lady” is reported to have originated in the elite of Thebes high society at the royal tombs in Thebes in Upper Egypt.

It was discovered in the early nineteenth century and built in the 1st century BC, at a time when Cleopatra was queen and Thebes was a beehive.

The mummy was brought to Warsaw, Poland in 1826, when some of the most important finds were found in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings, and is now on display at the National Museum in Warsaw.

Last year, a CT scan revealed that the woman was between 20 and 30 years old when she died, and she was 26 to 30 weeks pregnant.

Her fetus, located in the lower part of the lower pelvis and slightly in the lower part of the large pelvis, was mummified with her mother.

Because CT images are covered with tissue from the surrounding womb, they cannot be scanned, meaning they cannot get a more detailed examination other than the cephalometric test.

The circumference of his head was 9.8 inches, and the team used it to determine that he was 26 to 30 weeks old.

It is not removed from the womb, as are the heart, lungs, liver, and intestines.

Experts at the Warsaw Mummy Project could not determine why the fetus was individually removed and made mummified, as seen in other cases of dead babies.

At the time, they said: “Because he had not yet been born, he may still be thought of as an important part of his mother’s body.”

The fetus is not given a name, but according to ancient Egyptian belief, the name is an integral part of man.

Therefore, ancient beliefs believe that the afterlife of an unborn child can be realized only if he goes to the underworld as part of his mother.

This isn’t the first time cancer has been discovered in a mummy – in 2017 scientists discovered a case of multiple myeloma, the world’s oldest known breast cancer and a type of bone marrow cancer, in ancient mummies.

Source: Daily Mail