Surgeon catches CANCER from patient in first-of-its-kind case

DAILY MAIL

A doctor operating on a cancer patient accidentally ‘transplanted’ the disease into himself, in what is believed to be a one-of-a-kind event.

A 32-year-old man from Germany had been diagnosed with a rare type of cancer and was having a tumor removed from his abdomen. 

While in surgery, the doctor performing the procedure accidentally cut his hand, but the wound was disinfected and bandaged immediately. 

However, five months later, the 53-year-old surgeon noticed a small lump developing where he had injured himself months earlier and sought care. 

The lump turned out to be a malignant tumor and tests showed it was genetically identical to the cancer suffered by his former patient.

This lead the medical team who treated him to conclude he had caught the cancer when tumor cells entered the cut on his hand. 

Authors of the case report called this an usual situation because in a traditional transplant, the body mounts an immune response and rejects any foreign tissue, and they would have expected the same in the doctor’s case.

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