This is one of those times I come across s really bizarre medical report... And the next thing I do is to share it with ya guys 😄
The paper describing the incident was published in 1996 and in short describes how a surgeon accidentally transplantated a malignant sarcoma from a patient to... himself 😅😂
It all started when a 32 year old man underwent emergency surgery for a "malignant fibrous histiocytoma" from his abdomen. The patient died a bit later due to complications from surgery but that's not really relevant to the story. Just a sad detail.
During the surgery the surgeon, age 53, injured his palm while placing a drain and immediately disinfected it.
Fast forward five months later, the surgeon notices a tumor-like swelling at the place of the injury. He gets alarmed, visits a specialist and undergoes surgery to have the tumor removed. The lab tests confirm it's a cancer, specifically "malignant fibrous histiocytoma". Like the one from the patient 5 months ago!
Coincidence? Another specialist thinks not. So, some more lab work gets done and it reveals the two tumors were identical!!!
The surgeon had literally infected himself with the patient's cancer! Normally, that is impossible as the body immediately identifies the allogeneic tissue and destroys it.
But somehow, this time the tumor managed to escape:
Normally, transplantation of allogeneic tissue from one person to another induces an immune response that leads to the rejection of the transplanted tissue.1,14–17 In the case of the surgeon, an intense inflammatory reaction developed in the tissue surrounding the tumor, but the tumor mass increased, suggesting an ineffective antitumor immune response. The tumor may have escaped immunologic destruction through several mechanisms, such as qualitative and quantitative changes of major histocompatibility complex class I molecules on the tumor cells, an absence of immunogenic tumor antigens,18–22 deficient antigen processing by the tumor, or deficient presentation of tumor antigens by the host's antigen-presenting cells in the absence of costimulatory signals with consequent T-cell and B-cell anergy source
In case you wonder, the surgeon was doing mighty fine after two years with no signs of ill effects from the transplanted cancer!
And that's the story of the doctor who accidentally self transplanted a cancer. 😅
Here's a link to the report which has some more info and technical mumbo jumbo if you fancy to read more on the story.