Man’s ‘Brain Cancer’ Turns Out to Be Something Much More Horrifying

A man in Spain went to the hospital with chronic headaches, and doctors initially feared the worst.

Brain scans showed strange, poorly defined lesions, which are areas of abnormal tissue with blurred edges. To the medical team, the signs appeared to point toward deadly cancer that may have spread.

But when doctors took a closer look, they discovered something very different.

There were no tumors.

Instead, the man had pork tapeworm larvae in his brain.

The bizarre case was published in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases after doctors confirmed the parasitic infection with a blood test for Taenia solium, also known as the pork tapeworm.

The patient, a 60-year-old man from Castellón, had reportedly never traveled abroad, making the diagnosis even more surprising.

Doctors first performed a scan because of his headaches. After seeing the concerning lesions, they ordered a higher-resolution MRI to better locate what they thought might be tumors.

That is when the true cause was revealed.

The man was diagnosed with neurocysticercosis, a condition that happens when someone swallows pork tapeworm eggs and the larvae eventually settle in the brain.

Eating undercooked pork can cause someone to ingest adult tapeworms, but in this case, the man’s illness came from swallowing the eggs. Once inside the body, the eggs can hatch, burrow into tissue and form fluid-filled cysts.

Those cysts can travel through the body and settle in soft tissue. When they reach the brain, the result can be dangerous.

Neurocysticercosis can cause headaches, seizures, dizziness, muscle weakness, trouble speaking and memory problems. If left untreated, it can lead to life-threatening complications, including increased pressure inside the skull and ongoing seizures.

While cases are rare in Europe, they do happen. A similar case was reported in Germany earlier this year.

According to the World Health Organization, about 2.8 million people are infected with Taenia solium each year. Cases are most often reported in Asia, South America and Eastern Europe.

Thankfully for the Spanish patient, doctors said the condition was treatable.

He was given antiparasitic medications, including albendazole and praziquantel, which are commonly used to treat the infection. Other patients may also need anti-inflammatory drugs to reduce swelling, along with medication to control seizures, headaches or pressure inside the skull.

The case is another stomach-turning reminder that serious symptoms are not always what they first appear to be.

Last year, a separate pork tapeworm case went viral after emergency room doctor Sam Ghali shared a disturbing X-ray online. He described it as one of the “most insane X-rays” he had ever seen, showing a patient’s body riddled with the parasite.

In that case, the unidentified patient likely became infected after eating raw or undercooked pork containing larval cysts.