Heart surgery cured a mans skin cancer but left him with a bizarre new condition

It’s a medical domino effect no one could have seen coming.A 60-year-old man in Australia was suffering from stage four melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, and it had spread to several other places including his liver and thigh bone.While he was in treatment, he had to undergo unrelated heart surgery — and was stunned to learn, months later, that his tumors had vanished.“I was surprised, shocked, and relieved to hear the cancer had completely disappeared.I couldn’t control my emotions,” said the man, identified in the BMJ case study only as Mr.

A.But that wasn’t the only surprise in store.Two years after the heart surgery, Mr.

A had a life-threatening allergic reaction to a bee sting.That was noteworthy, because he’d never been allergic before — he was sure of it, since he’d been stung dozens of times.While a sudden bee allergy may seem totally unrelated to heart surgery, the authors of the case study believe it could be a major clue in why his cancer had disappeared years prior.What makes his complete remission especially shocking is how far his cancer had developed.

Cancer is much harder to treat once is moves to distant parts of the body, as had happened in his case: Mr.A’s melanoma had spread to multiple lymph nodes, his liver and his left thigh bone.

At this advanced stage, only 35% of patients survive for five years.The liver, in particular, was a problem.The immune system is less effective at killing cancer there, while cancer in the organ could also cause toxins to accumulate in the blood.Doctors put him on aggressive cancer medication, including chemotherapy.

He had to stop because of severe side effects, but his tumors had not shrunk.Mr.A’s heart surgery was to address a valve that had narrowed dangerously.

While it’s not clear how the heart problems were related to his cancer, metastatic cancer patients often also have this heart issue, and radiation can play a role.After the surgery, Mr.A developed a bacterial infe...