A CANCER patient is in remission after receiving no treatment after undergoing a biopsy in an incredibly rare case.
The woman, aged 59, is thought to be one of only nine known cases where a biopsy led to the cancer vanishing within a matter of weeks.
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A cancer patient is in remission after receiving no treatment in an incredibly rare case Credit: Getty
A woman, aged 59, saw a tumour in her arm disappear after undergoing a biopsy Credit: Gannon M C, Gabor R M, Gupta A, et al. (April 15, 2026)
It’s understood that a biopsy to diagnose a tumour in the woman’s arm triggered an immune response against the cancer, New Scientist reports.
The 59-year-old first discovered the lump when it was around 2cm wide, according to doctors at Marshfield Clinic Health System in Wisconsin, USA, where she was treated.
After quickly growing in size and causing her pain, she sought medical attention and received a biopsy – a procedure where a sample is removed for closer examination.
A needle biopsy was performed after the lump was marked with tattoo ink to reveal the exact location of the tumour.
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The tumour was around 2cm wide and causing the woman pain Credit: Gannon M C, Gabor R M, Gupta A, et al. (April 15, 2026)
But when she arrived for surgery, it was found the tumour had completely vanished Credit: Gannon M C, Gabor R M, Gupta A, et al. (April 15, 2026)
In this case, the cancer cells were found to be aggressive and located between the woman’s skin and muscle in the connective tissue.
Rohit Sharma, who treated the woman at Marshfield, said her cancer was “likely to spread” when it was diagnosed.
But astonishingly, when the woman arrived to have the tumour surgically removed two weeks later, the tumour had vanished leaving doctors stunned.
According to Sharma, the tumour had “started to go down within three or four days” after the biopsy.
To ensure the cancer had truly gone, a sample of surrounding tissue was examined and found to be cancer free – the woman is now in remission having received no treatment.
“The timing of the biopsy and resolution suggests there’s an immune reaction occurring,” Sharma said.
It marks an incredibly uncommon occurrence, known as spontaneous regression (SR).
The case, discussed by six surgeons in the medical journal Cureus, was described as “an exceptionally rare biological event, estimated to occur in one out of every 60,000 to 100,000 cancer cases”.
It was dubbed an “extremely remarkable” case by one expert who concurred with Sharma.
Toby Lawrence, of the Centre for Immunology of Marseille-Luminy in France said: “It really suggests some kind of immune activation in response to the injury of the biopsy, because it had extremely rapid effects on tumour growth.”
But, he stressed the rarity of such a response from the body and said such people may have a genetic disposition that causes their immune systems to respond in such a way.
However, such instances could lead to further breakthroughs in improving the general responses to cancer therapy – especially if there are further cases.
