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A past case of a surgeon having accidentally "transplanted" a rare type of cancer from a patient into himself during a procedure has resurfaced and renewed interest, the Daily Mail reports.
The patient, identified as a 32-year-old man from Germany, was having a malignant fibrous histiocytoma -- a rare type of cancer -- tumor removed from his abdomen in 1996. The doctor, identified as a 53-year-old, accidentally cut his hand -- which was reported to be disinfected and bandaged immediately -- during the procedure before noticing a small lump developing five months later.
The medical team concluded that the surgeon caught the cancer after tumor cells entered the wound on his hand. Researchers said the incident was a one-of-a-kind event as the body typically mounts an immune response and rejects any foreign tissue, though the tumor's development and growth suggests that the doctor's body had an "ineffective antitumor immune response."
The case was published in the New England Journal of Medicine and recently had renewed interest. Malignant fibrous histiocytoma has an estimated 1,400 diagnoses annually.
The patient was initially reported to have undergone successful surgery, but died from complications after the procedure. The surgeon underwent an "extensive" exam on the tumor, which was removed despite no abnormal findings.
