The discovery of fragments of a hominid’s foot bone and another’s spine in South Africa has led to an astonishing revelation. Both pieces, 1.7 million and 2 million years old respectively, had traces of cancer. The diseases designated under the generic term “cancer” are often thought of as a byproduct of modernity. There are, indeed, different types of the neoplastic condition that are caused by smoking, pollution and other artificial factors. Yet, as the archeological evidence shows, it appears to have been around since the origin of life. It is as old as life, or death. For both life and death are the two different faces of the same: the latter will always follow the former.