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It is the disease that is now responsible for one in four deaths in the Western world.

Now, what may be the oldest case of cancer has been discovered in a 4,500-year-old skeleton.

Archaeologists say that a Siberian man succumbed to either lung or prostate cancer, as revealed by tell-tale marks on his bones.

Earliest victim? What may be the oldest case of cancer has been discovered in a 4,500-year-old skeleton (pictured). Archaeologists say that a Siberian man succumbed to either lung or prostate cancer, as revealed by tell-tale marks on his bones

The early Bronze Age man's remains were exhumed from a small hunter-gatherer cemetery in the Cis-Baikal region of Siberia.

'This represents one of the earliest cases of human cancer worldwide and the oldest case documented thus far from Northeast Asia,' said Angela Lieverse, a bioarchaeologist at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Canada.

Older skeletons believed to be between 5,000 and 6,000 years old have yielded similar discoveries, but cancers were unconfirmed or tumours were found to be benign.

Analysing the Russian remains with Daniel Temple from George Mason University in Virginia and Vladimir Bazaliiskii with Irkutsk State University in Russia, Dr Lieverse discovered that the cancer had riddled the ancient man's bones with from head to hip, including his upper arms and upper legs, and virtually all points between.

As he lay dying, severe pain and fatigue would have been his constant companions, punctuated by periods of panic as he struggled to breathe, she said. 

The man's age, sex and lesions on his bones point to lung cancer ( a magnified human lung cancer cell is shown) or possible prostate cancer for his cause of death. Experts found the cancer had riddled the ancient man's bones with from head to hip, including his upper arms and upper legs, and virtually all points between

The man's community buried him in a foetal position in a circular pit after he died, according to the research published in the journal, Plos One.

The cancer victim was buried with an ornamental bone and a bone spoon, intricately carved with a winding serpent handle.

He is thought to have been between 35 and 40 years old when he died.

This burial differed from most men's of the period, who were typically laid to rest on their backs with fishing or hunting gear. 

The researchers performed a battery of tests on the man, as if he had died recently and ruled out the possibility that he had died from tuberculosis or fungal diseases.

They said that the most likely culprit was metastatic carcinoma – cancer that starts in one part of the body and spreads.

'It's clear the disease had progressed considerably, metastasising far beyond its original location in the body and contributing to his death,' Dr Lieverse said.

'His age and sex and the lesions on his bones point to lung cancer or possibly prostate cancer.'

The early Bronze Age man's remains were exhumed from a small hunter-gatherer cemetery near Lake Baikal (shown on the map) in the Cis-Baikal region of Siberia

Ancient skeletons bearing the scars of cancer are rare, leading some people to believe that the disease is a recent phenomenon caused by our modern lifestyles.

The Bronze Age man lived in a mountainous region with freshwater lakes and would have eaten a healthy diet of fish, game and fresh seasonal plants.

However, this find provides evidence that refutes this hypothesis.

Dr Lieverse suspects that taking into account variables such as longer life expectancies, cancer may have been considerably more common in ancient times than is generally presumed.

'As we become more familiar with what metastatic carcinoma looks like in the skeleton, the number of cases identified by bioarchaeological research is likely to increase,' she said.

'A related example is scurvy. Once we knew what scurvy does to the skeleton and became familiar with the signs, identification of the disease increased.