A team of scientists from the University of Witwatersrand (Johannesburg) and the South African Center for Excellence in Paleoscience have found the earliest evidence of cancer in humans. The metatarsal of a 1.7 million-year-old fossilized foot found in Swartkrans's South African cave, about 40 kilometers northwest of Johannesburg, has been revealed in a statement.

The researchers are unaware of the exact species to which the remains belong, but are convinced that the definitive evidence of a malignant cancer in a biped human is being treated. "We examined this particular bone with a sample of modern human osteosarcoma, and looked identical ... Millions of years old, and one could not tell the difference," explains Edward John Odes of the School of Anatomical Sciences at the University of Witwatersrand.