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Homosexual dies after tapeworm inside him gets cancer
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One Gay Experience Causes HIV-AIDS
Nov 8, 2015, 6:23:35 PM11/8/15
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A Colombian man's lung tumors turned out to have an extremely
unusual cause: The rapidly growing masses weren't actually made
of human cells, but were from a tapeworm living inside him,
according to a report of the case.
This is the first known report of a person becoming sick from
cancer cells that developed in a parasite, the researchers said.
"We were amazed when we found this new type of disease —
tapeworms growing inside a person, essentially getting cancer,
that spreads to the person, causing tumors," said study
researcher Dr. Atis Muehlenbachs, a staff pathologist at the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Infectious Diseases
Pathology Branch (IDPB).
The man had HIV, which weakens the immune system and likely
played a role in allowing the development of the parasite
cancer, the researchers said. Although the man's case is
probably a rare one, the researchers noted that both tapeworms
and HIV affect millions of people worldwide, "so there may be
more cases that are unrecognized," Muehlenbachs said. [10 Deadly
Diseases That Hopped Across Species]
The 41-year-old man first went to doctors in Colombia after
experiencing a fever, cough and weight loss for several months.
The man had been diagnosed with HIV more than 10 years earlier,
but was not taking his medications.
A CT scan showed tumors in his lung and lymph nodes, but
biopsies of these tumors revealed bizarre cells, leading
Colombian doctors to contact the CDC for assistance in
diagnosing the man.
The cells, when examined under a microscope, acted like cancer
cells — they multiplied quickly and crowded together. But the
cells didn't appear to be human, they were 10 times smaller than
human cancer cells.
After a number of tests, the researchers found DNA from a type
of tapeworm called H. nana in the man's tumor. This result was
surprising, the researchers said, because the cells did not look
at all like tissue from a tapeworm. But further tests confirmed
that the cells were indeed from H. nana.
The researchers hypothesized that, because the man had HIV, the
tapeworm kept growing in the body, unchecked by the immune
system. Eventually, mutations developed in the tapeworm's cells
that turned the cells cancerous.
The patient died just 72 hours after researchers determined that
the tumors were caused by H. nana.
H. nana is the most common tapeworm in humans, infecting up to
75 million people worldwide at any given time.
If researchers do find other cases like the Colombian man's,
it's not clear what type of treatment would help. Drugs that
treat tapeworm infections may not be able to treat cancer cells
from tapeworms, the researchers said. But it's possible that
human cancer treatment might also work against parasite cancer
cells.
The study is published in today's (Nov. 5) issue of the New
England Journal of Medicine.
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2015/11/05/man-dies-after-tapeworm-
inside-him-gets-cancer.html
unusual cause: The rapidly growing masses weren't actually made
of human cells, but were from a tapeworm living inside him,
according to a report of the case.
This is the first known report of a person becoming sick from
cancer cells that developed in a parasite, the researchers said.
"We were amazed when we found this new type of disease —
tapeworms growing inside a person, essentially getting cancer,
that spreads to the person, causing tumors," said study
researcher Dr. Atis Muehlenbachs, a staff pathologist at the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Infectious Diseases
Pathology Branch (IDPB).
The man had HIV, which weakens the immune system and likely
played a role in allowing the development of the parasite
cancer, the researchers said. Although the man's case is
probably a rare one, the researchers noted that both tapeworms
and HIV affect millions of people worldwide, "so there may be
more cases that are unrecognized," Muehlenbachs said. [10 Deadly
Diseases That Hopped Across Species]
The 41-year-old man first went to doctors in Colombia after
experiencing a fever, cough and weight loss for several months.
The man had been diagnosed with HIV more than 10 years earlier,
but was not taking his medications.
A CT scan showed tumors in his lung and lymph nodes, but
biopsies of these tumors revealed bizarre cells, leading
Colombian doctors to contact the CDC for assistance in
diagnosing the man.
The cells, when examined under a microscope, acted like cancer
cells — they multiplied quickly and crowded together. But the
cells didn't appear to be human, they were 10 times smaller than
human cancer cells.
After a number of tests, the researchers found DNA from a type
of tapeworm called H. nana in the man's tumor. This result was
surprising, the researchers said, because the cells did not look
at all like tissue from a tapeworm. But further tests confirmed
that the cells were indeed from H. nana.
The researchers hypothesized that, because the man had HIV, the
tapeworm kept growing in the body, unchecked by the immune
system. Eventually, mutations developed in the tapeworm's cells
that turned the cells cancerous.
The patient died just 72 hours after researchers determined that
the tumors were caused by H. nana.
H. nana is the most common tapeworm in humans, infecting up to
75 million people worldwide at any given time.
If researchers do find other cases like the Colombian man's,
it's not clear what type of treatment would help. Drugs that
treat tapeworm infections may not be able to treat cancer cells
from tapeworms, the researchers said. But it's possible that
human cancer treatment might also work against parasite cancer
cells.
The study is published in today's (Nov. 5) issue of the New
England Journal of Medicine.
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2015/11/05/man-dies-after-tapeworm-
inside-him-gets-cancer.html
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