Report: Stomach Cancer Killed Napoleon

Napoleon Bonaparte died of stomach cancer, and that's the final word, according to an international group of scientists who used the latest cancer-identification techniques to bolster their assertion.

Many historians have believed that the French emperor was killed by poison; others have suggested stomach cancer, based on symptoms observed late in his life. The most recent research supports this second assertion. Even modern medicine could not have saved Napoleon, the scientists say.

The report, published in the January issue of Nature Clinical Practice Gastroenterology & Hepatology, cited autopsy results showing that Napoleon had tumor growth and intense bleeding in his stomach. The level of tumor growth was so severe that he would have had just a 20 percent chance of living even after a full treatment of surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation, the report concluded.

Adding further evidence to the claim was the possibility that Napoleon's father died of stomach cancer and that the French soldiers' diet, filled with salty meat that harbored large numbers of disease-causing bacteria, could have played a role.

Despite this latest finding, plenty of historians still conclude that the emperor was killed deliberately, either by assassins or by ignorant doctors of the time.