Can an autopsy be performed 30 years later to confirm that cancer may have been the cause of death?
by 
Anonymous
ANSWERS: 3
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Yes it could. But I guess it would depend on the type of cancer. Most cancers go straight to the bones and you would be able to tell through them.
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An autopsy can be performed, but after thirty years, there may not be enough tissue left to make a determination.
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Assuming that the body is well preserved then yes. Sort of. Any cancer, though it would obviously have stopped growing and died following starvation of nutrients such as oxygen, should decompose at the same rate as the rest of the tissue as it is still normal human tissue, it's just that it is less differentiated along its cell lineage and has lost division control. But if the cause of death is what would be classed in otherwise healthy individuals, could be wrongly attributed to cancer, since a high proportion of people, especially the elderly, have tumours inside the body that may have been asymptomatic in life and were not even known. 80% of men over the age of 75 when they die show prostatic tumours.
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