Spanish Patient Highlights Risks of Poorly Cooked Pork

Doctors in Spain recently handled a fascinating yet terrifying case of a patient that developed brain cancer-like symptoms and was treated as such, but additional tests brought to light a scarier cause of his illness: cysts resulting from a pork tapeworm infection. This case highlights the dangers of exposure to these worms, or eating pork that hasn’t been cooked fully. 

The patient’s medical mystery started with worsening headaches that lasted more than two weeks. His behavior also started changing in subtle ways, and these symptoms prompted him to visit his doctor. 

A CT scan conducted on his brain showed he had lesions, and the doctor feared that he had cancer that had metastasized to his brain. The doctor quickly prescribed an anti-inflammatory that is routinely prescribed for brain cancer patients, and the patient experienced a rapid reduction in his symptoms. 

However, when additional tests to establish the primary source of the cancer that had “metastasized” to his brain were conducted, doctors were stumped when no cancer was found in his body. 

The doctors intensified their investigations by taking blood samples and performing an MRI scan on the patient. These advanced tests revealed that rather than the cancer they had feared, the patient had a pork tapeworm infection that had triggered cysts to grow in his brain. 

How did this infection reach his brain? Doctors explained that when a person eats poorly cooked pork that is infected with these tapeworms, the larvae ingested can grow within the gut, mate and reproduce, and the resultant infection could trigger cysts to grow throughout a person’s body. This is what had happened to the 60-year-old man. 

In this patient’s case, he didn’t eat pork but shared meals and toilet facilities with immigrants at the different construction sites where he worked. Those shared meals could have exposed him to this infection, triggering the symptoms he experienced. 

Even shaking hands with a person infested with pork tapeworms can transfer eggs of these worms to the uninfected person and if they handle food without washing their hands first, the eggs can find their way into the person’s gut, triggering a cascade of worms multiplying within their digestive tract. 

When cysts start growing in the central nervous system as a result of the presence of the worm, the condition is called neurocysticercosis. This condition is the major cause of epileptic fits in adults who don’t have a history of these seizures. 

People in developed countries rarely develop neurocysticercosis, but the condition is common in tropical countries. Luckily for this Spanish patient, the condition was caught early and he was successfully treated. 

This brain cancer scare brings to light the challenges the medical community faces in accurately diagnosing and treating brain tumors. Treatment options are limited, but there is hope that efforts by companies like CNS Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: CNSP) will help in expanding the repertoire of effective therapies available to address the clinical needs of brain cancer patients. 

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