In this undated picture provided by BBC Worldwide, presenter Michael Mosley from "BBC Earth" holds up an adult beef tapeworm on the program.(Photo: Nathan Williams, BBC Worldwide via AP)
(NEWSER)<span style="color: Red;">*</span>– Centers for Disease Control researchers say it is one of the strangest and most unsettling cases they have ever encountered. The researchers say that scans of a very ill man in Colombia revealed what "looked like cancer, but the tumors were composed of cells that were not human,"<span style="color: Red;">*</span>
NPR<span style="color: Red;">*</span>reports. The tumors had come from the man's resident tapeworm, which had developed cancer and somehow spread the disease to its host, according to the scientists, whose study published in the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>
New England Journal of Medicine<span style="color: Red;">*</span>describes the "invasion of human tissue by abnormal, proliferating, genetically altered tapeworm cells" as a "novel disease mechanism." The man died 72 hours after researchers pinpointed the cause of the tumors,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>
Live Science<span style="color: Red;">*</span>reports.
The Colombian man had HIV, which meant the tapeworm's growth in his body was not halted the way it would have been by a healthy immune system,
Live Science notes. A CDC pathologist tells the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>
Washington Post<span style="color: Red;">*</span>that it took dozens of tests to reveal the cause of the illness, and finding tapeworm DNA in the tumors was a huge surprise. "This is the first time we've seen parasite-derived cancer cells spreading within an individual," he says. "This is a very unusual, very unique illness."
The<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Post<span style="color: Red;">*</span>notes that the study raises questions about what other parasites dwelling in the human body can develop — and spread — cancer. (For more tapeworm horror, read about<span style="color: Red;">*</span>
what caused this man's headache.)
This story originally appeared on<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Newser:
NEWSER
Researchers Tested a Man's Unusual Tumor Cells. The DNA Wasn't Human
More from Newser:
NEWSER
One of America's Grossest Tourist Attractions Is Finally Getting Cleaned
NEWSER
A Cleveland Teenager Was Missing for 13 Years and He Didn't Know It
NEWSER
Washington Redskins Filed an Amazingly Vulgar Court Brief in Bid to Save Their Name
Newser<span style="color: Red;">*</span>is a USA TODAY content partner providing general news, commentary and coverage from around the Web. Its content is produced independently of USA TODAY.
Powered By WizardRSS.com |
Full Text RSS Feed
