Napoleon Killed by Stomach Cancer? Jan. 17, 2007 — Napoleon Bonaparte died from an advanced gastric cancer rather than arsenic poisoning, as some had speculated, say scientists. Comparing historical accounts with modern pathological and tumor-staging methods, the study rebuts the theory that Napoleon died from arsenic poisoning and points to gastrointestinal bleeding as the immediate cause of his death. The man who dominated much of Europe in the early 19th century died at age 52 in British-imposed exile on St. Helena in the south Atlantic, where he had been banished after his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo. For decades, scholars have debated how Bonaparte met his early death on May 5, 1821. The autopsy and conclusion of his personal doctor, Francesco Antommarchi, indicated that Napoleon died of stomach cancer. But the veracity of Antommarchi's report was questioned in 1961, when high arsenic levels were found in Napoleon's hair. The finding raised many theories of conspiracy, treachery and poisoning. According to these claims, the former French Emperor was poisoned to prevent a return to power if he escaped exile. But with the tumor in a very advanced stage, Napoleon's fighting days were irremediably over, a team of U.S., Swiss and Canadian researchers report in Nature Clinical Practice Gastroenterology & Hepatology. Robert Genta, professor of pathology and internal medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern, and colleagues compared current images of 50 benign ulcers and 50 gastric cancers with what Antommarchi described as an "ulcerated gastric lesion with hardened, irregular borders covering the stomach from the cardia to the pyloric region." "From this comparison we concluded that the description of Napoleon's lesion was highly consistent with ulcerated gastric cancer," the researchers wrote. Using a modern tumor-staging method and data from 135 gastric cancer patients, Genta's team found that Napoleon had at least T3N1M0, or stage IIIA, gastric cancer. Indeed, the autopsy and other accounts indicated that the cancer was large, lymph nodes were present around the stomach, and there were no distant growths. "Even today, with the availability of sophisticated surgical techniques and chemotherapies, patients with gastric cancer as advanced as Napoleon's have a poor prognosis," said Genta in a statement released to the press. Although Napoleon's father died of stomach cancer, the researchers believe a hereditary disposition to the disease was unlikely. Rather, the tumor was probably caused by a chronic infection of the bacteria H. pylori, Genta and colleagues concluded. A bad military diet based on salt-preserved foods, and sparse in fruits and vegetables, would not have helped. The new analysis matches a 2005 Swiss study that dismissed the popular notion that Napoleon was obese at the time of death — an unlikely condition for a stomach cancer patient. Examination of 12 pairs of trousers worn by Napoleon between 1800 and 1821 showed that Bonaparte drastically slimmed down in the final six months of his life, losing almost 5 inches from his waist and more than 24 pounds — weight loss that would be consistent with a diagnosis of gastric cancer. "This is a great study. As a forensic and criminalistic pathologist, I view the result of this paper as a perfect medical-historic-forensic reconstruction," Richard Dirnhofer, a forensic medicine expert from Bern, Switzerland, told Discovery News.
