Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 21, 2026

Establishment of a Primary Culture of Patient-derived Soft Tissue Sarcoma
Published on: April 11, 2018
Soft tissue tumors in palaeopathology: a review
Gino Fornaciari1, Valentina Giuffra
1Division of Paleopathology, History of Medicine and Bioethics, Department of Oncology, Transplants and Advanced Technologies in Medicine, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy. gino.fornaciari@med.unipi.it
Objective:
To perform a review of soft tissue tumors in palaeopathology.
Methods:
Examination of palaeopathological literature.
Results:
Up to now, observations of neoplastic soft tissue lesions in mummified remains are limited to 15 cases, and only 4 of them present malignancies; 14 cases of calcified benign tumors, including 13 neoplasms of the female reproductive system and 1 teratoma, are also documented.
Conclusions:
The main reasons for the rarity of soft tissue tumors in palaeopathology, especially of malignancies, are apparently the short life span of past populations, the scarcity of mummified remains available in comparison with skeletal remains, and technical difficulties in the detection of neoplastic lesions in mummified tissues.
Related Concept Videos
Tissues
Tumor Progression
Colon cancer is one of the best-documented examples of tumor progression. Early mutation in the APC gene in colon cells causes a small growth on the colon wall called a polyp. With time, this polyp grows into a benign, pre-cancerous tumor. Further...
