Cornwall cancer patient saw his tumours all but disappear after battling coronavirus
The 61-year-old went into spontaneous remission after being admitted to Treliske last summer
A study has revealed a Cornwall cancer patient went into spontaneous remission after battling coronavirus.
The 61-year-old man, who has not been named, was admitted to Treliske with severe Covid last summer.
He had only just been diagnosed with Hodgkin Lymphoma - a rare cancer that affects the lymphatic system. The fluid that flows through the system contains infection-fighting white blood cells.
However a follow-up scan showed tumours that had riddled his body just weeks earlier, had almost vanished.
The results have been published in the British Journal of Haematology and you can more on the report here.
Consultant Haematologist at the Royal Cornwall Hospital, Dr David Tucker, believes fighting coronavirus helped fire up the patient's immune system.
"We think that he did develop a transient response in his lymphoma, possibly to the Covid. We can't prove that but it's very rare to have a spontaneous remission from this type of lymphoma.
"The potential mechanism for that is not really understood but my hypothesis is that the immune system, which we know is very important in fighting infections and also protects us from cancer, was stimulated in some way by the Covid-19 infection. It's possible that part of the immune system, due to that stimulation, also was directed towards his own lymphoma cells.
"It's important to stress that this was only a transient response and that he did require chemotherapy once he'd recovered but it's an interesting phenomenon.
"The time that he was in remission wasn't permanent, it was only for a few months. After he had recovered from the Covid-19 his lymphoma did return and he's subsequently been treated with chemotherapy with a good response".
Dr Tucker added: "I certainly wouldn't be encouraging anyone with cancer to be going looking for Covid-19 because what we do know, for sure, is that the viral infection Covid-19 is much more dangerous in patients who have cancer or who are undergoing chemotherapy.
"But we do know that the immune system - we do use certain drugs which stimulate the immune system to treat cancer in lymphoma and other types of cancer so it's an interesting area of research".
Dr David Tucker, Consultant Haematologist at Treliske
Dr Tucker added that the publication of this case could lead to further research into how the immune system may be stimulated to treat cancer.