In the social media, the story of a man who died due to metastasis caused by a tumor went viral. However, the cancer had not started in the individual's body, but rather in the body of a parasitic worm that lived in his intestine.
The case happened in 2015 and was recently published on X (formerly Twitter), causing people to comment about it.
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The patient in question had HIV, so his immune system was very fragile. As a consequence, the parasite cancer grown up.
The diagnosis came in partnership with the UK Natural History Museum and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which examined the man.
Around 75 million people can be infected by the dwarf tapeworm, which causes symptoms such as abdominal pain, diarrhea, insomnia, agitation and irritability.
The patient in question, a 41-year-old Colombian, was one of the rarest cases ever seen, and doctors believe it may have happened before, but there has been no diagnosis.
(Image: disclosure)
There are many records of cancer that can be passed from person to person due to organ transplantation, through the uterus and parasitic cancer, which can be transmitted between dogs.
Additionally, the best way to prevent worms like the one that infected the Colombian is by washing your hands correctly and properly cooking some vegetables and meats.
The 41-year-old Colombian sought help from doctors because he had tumors in his liver, lungs and other places in his body. But after an assessment was done, experts noted that the cancer cells in the man's body were not human.
They were about a tenth the size of ordinary cells in our body. Thus, the professionals discovered that the tapeworm DNA was very high, that is, there was a parasitic worm in the man's body that was the “owner” of the cancer.
Doctors couldn't know whether this was a rare case of metastasis from the tapeworm tumor or whether it was an infection, and so Therefore, the start of treatment ended up being postponed, causing the patient to die 3 days after being treated. diagnosed. Experts only reached a verdict many months later.
The best theory is that one of the eggs of this worm was able to penetrate the lining of the man's intestine, and then it mutated and became a cancer.