In a case that doctors are describing as “ sick , ” a 41 - year - old Colombian man was found to host cancerous cestode tumour in his wit and other bodily organs .
The man , who lately died of complications arising from HIV , was first diagnosed back in 2013 . Doctor scramble to make sense of the tumor disbursed throughout his body , the cell of which were uncharacteristically humble , densely pack — and apparently not human .
Further psychoanalysis by the U.S. Centers for Disease control affirm that the patient had contract the cancerous cells from the tapeworm , Hymenolepis nana , and that owing to his compromised immune system , the neoplasm were allow to thrive . Thedetails of this extraordinary casecan now be found in the modish edition of The New England Journal of Medicine .
Short telecasting produced by the CDC explain the case .
The CDC suspects that the affected role contracted the cancer by ingesting some microscopic cestode ballock , likely in intellectual nourishment contaminated by mouse droppings , insect , or human feces . It ’s not know if the cells in the cestode testis were already cancerous before they enter the patient ’s body , or whether there was some sort of biological interaction between the parasite and the body that converted them into cancerous cells .
Prior to this breakthrough , scientists did n’t think that any human leech could harbour cancer cell , or channelise them to multitude . What ’s more , Crab is not generally considered to be a genetic disease , though precedents exist in the animal land , admit transmissible Crab cellular telephone inTasmanian Devilsanddomestic pawl .
Cancerous parasitic worm cells ( credit rating : A. Muehlenbachs et al . , 2015 / NEJM )
“ This is the first time we ’ve seen parasite - derived cancer cell spreading within an individual,”notedexpert pathologist and subject area star author Atis Muehlenbachs in the Washington Post . “ This is a very strange , very singular sickness . ” Muehlenbachs specialize in unexplained whodunit illnesses and deaths .
The malignant neoplastic disease had spread to other organs of the patient ’s consistency ( Credit : A. Muehlenbachs et al . , 2015 / NEJM )
As reported in the Washington Post , this find has some scientist worry , though the CDC does n’t believe there ’s any risk of the cestode cancer cells being distribute among humans . This may represent a unequaled sheath in which a particularly vulnerable mortal was left susceptible . More from WaPo :
It ’s unclear how common this type of cestode cancer illness is in humans , but expert like Pritt think it ’s likely that there are more case out there : “ H. nana is a very common cestode infection in homo , and therefore I would expect there to be other cases like the one described … that were misdiagnosed or depart undetected . ”
Matthew B. Laurens , an associate professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine who specializes in infective diseases , said the finding highlight our demand to strengthen Cancer the Crab diagnosing and data assemblage in developing countries .
“ We could just be scratch the surface of something that could be very significant , ” Laurens suppose .
Peter D. Olson , a researcher at the Natural History Museum in London who helped the CDC understand its results , said that the finding typify “ an tremendous advance in our knowledge and elevate questions about the conditions under which cells may become cancerous . ”
Some medical experts caution that the term “ cancer ” is n’t even appropriate in this context . Muehlenbachs himself prefer to describe it as “ an transmission with sponge - derived cancer which induce a cancer - alike sickness , ” while asking : “ Can you say a worm has cancer ? That ’s a philosophical question , how you define this . ”
Muchmoreat the Washington Post . Read the integral study at The New England Journal of Medicine : “ Malignant Transformation of Hymenolepis nana in a Human Host ” .
BiologyCancerMedicineScience
Daily Newsletter
Get the best tech , science , and culture tidings in your inbox daily .
News from the future , delivered to your present .
You May Also Like
