[Paleopathology of cancers].

Paleopathology is useful for our knowledge of the natural history of cancer. However, the interpretation of neoplasms (retrospective diagnosis and past epidemiology) is one of the more interesting and difficult aspects of paleopathology. Paleopathology of cancer may be also useful for pathography and, sometimes, demonstrates a linkage between history and legend. The epidermoid cyst diagnosed on the vault of Saint Aubert, the founder of the Mont Saint Michel (France), supplies a such example.