from the as-if-the-tapeworm-itself-was-not-bad-enough dept.
A severely immunosuppressed man, due to an HIV infection, died as a result of an atypical Hymenolepis nana infection. It appears that some of the tapeworm cells became cancerous and spread to the patient where they formed tumors. This is the first reported case of cancer in multicellular parasites in addition to the first reported case of transmission of such a cancer to a human.
From the full report which appeared in The New England Journal of Medicine:
In January 2013, a 41-year-old man in Medellín, Colombia, presented with fatigue, fever, cough, and weight loss of several months' duration. He had received a diagnosis of HIV infection in 2006 and was nonadherent to therapy ... Stool examination revealed H. nana eggs and Blastocystis hominis cysts. Computed tomographic imaging showed lung nodules ranging in size from 0.4 to 4.4 cm, as well as liver and adrenal nodules and cervical, mediastinal, and abdominal lymphadenopathy.
... This case posed a diagnostic conundrum. The proliferative cells had overt features of a malignant process — they invaded adjacent tissue, had a crowded and disordered growth pattern, and were monomorphic, with morphologic features that are characteristic of stem cells (a high nucleus-to-cytoplasm ratio) — but the small cell size ([less than] 10 μm in diameter) suggested infection with an unfamiliar, possibly unicellular, eukaryotic organism.
... Although the cells were unrecognizable as tapeworm tissue, immunohistochemical staining and probe hybridization labeled the cells in situ. Comparative deep sequencing identified H. nana structural genomic variants that are compatible with mutations described in cancer. Invasion of human tissue by abnormal, proliferating, genetically altered tapeworm cells is a novel disease mechanism that links infection and cancer.
Here are some additional links:
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-34721419
http://www.theverge.com/2015/11/4/9670574/tapeworm-cancer-cells-hiv-infection-immune-system-cdc
http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2015/11/04/454066109/a-man-in-colombia-got-cancer-and-it-came-from-a-tapeworm
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 06 2015, @10:15AM
Wow, this poor guy. HIV, tapeworms, and tapeworm cancer?
Makes me want to complain just a little less about my own life's circumstances.
RIP, horribly unlucky dude.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 06 2015, @02:17PM
"Nonadherent to therapy"...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 06 2015, @04:00PM
HIV antivirals aren't cheap, simple to administer, or free of side effects. Patients have many reasons for not continuing with therapy.
(Score: 2) by Dunbal on Friday November 06 2015, @11:39AM
Reminds me of something - oh yeah this [youtu.be]! Seriously though poor guy. Some people have all the luck. And some others...
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Friday November 06 2015, @11:46AM
Sheesh, I thought slipping over a (half-eaten by a warm) banana on my way to the dentist and twisting my ankle was bad luck...
compiling...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 06 2015, @01:57PM
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenofovir [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 06 2015, @02:04PM
Are we?
(Score: 2) by KilroySmith on Friday November 06 2015, @02:36PM
"a 41-year-old man" and "and cervical...lymphadenopathy"
don't compute for me, but I'm just an engineer...
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 06 2015, @03:00PM
Cervical as in the neck area of his spine. Not the cervix as in female parts.
(Score: 2) by KilroySmith on Friday November 06 2015, @04:25PM
Thank you; I was confused but I'm better now (and slightly embarrased, to tell the truth...)
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 06 2015, @03:02PM
Cervical means neck: Cervix uteri (Latin: neck of the uterus)
(Score: 2) by The Archon V2.0 on Friday November 06 2015, @03:11PM
> "a 41-year-old man" and "and cervical...lymphadenopathy" don't compute for me, but I'm just an engineer...
Evidently, as I don't think of engineers as sports fans; I'd suspect that any fan of a rough sport would have heard about one of their favorite manly men suffering cervical vertebrae or cervical spine injuries.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 06 2015, @03:47PM
I had cervical surgery done twice. When I went to get a cervical collar I asked for a cervix collar. When I asked the doctor about the donor bone they were going to place there, I said boner bone. Too many painkillers.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 06 2015, @03:35PM
"At least...I don't....have to deal with....System........Deee.....anymore -- *gaak* *thunk*"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 06 2015, @04:59PM
No... He had a BSOD
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday November 06 2015, @06:37PM
With all this SystemD nonsense going on this might finally be the Year of the Windows Desktop!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 07 2015, @02:03AM
Some other systemd testimonials: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMqbeE84ANY [youtube.com]