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Friday, January 13, 2012

Health / Life "It Appears You Have Coughed Up Your Cancer. Congratulations."

Posted by David Schmader on Fri, Jan 13, 2012 at 10:17 AM

So said the UK doctor to the woman whose aggressive throat and mouth cancer was undetectable after a productive coughing fit. From the Daily Mail:

Claire Osborn went on holiday for two weeks with her lorry driver husband Kevin, 53, and when she returned home in November, doctors told she had cancer. "They said the cancer was inoperable and I should be prepared for chemotherapy and radiation therapy."

But then:

Claire was at home with her family in Coventry when she felt a scratching sensation in her throat on October 11 last year. After five minutes coughing she felt 'something dislodge' and fly out of her mouth. She said: 'I put a tissue over my mouth and felt something fleshy come up my throat. It looked like a strip of liver. I didn't really think too much about it and threw it away. The next day I was in the car with my son and the same thing happened again but this time the lump was much bigger, about 2cm long. I knew something was very wrong so I went straight to my GP who sent the tissue sample away for tests."

Turns out something was not very wrong but freakishly right:

Head and Neck surgeon Gary Walton, who treated Claire, said: 'This patient basically coughed up her cancerous tumour. The tissue which she coughed up was tested and there was a malignancy. It was suspected that this could have been part of a tumour elsewhere in the body but scans showed she was clear. It is very uncommon to cough up cancer, but she did it."

Full story here.

Comments (12) RSS

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They should test that tissue sample for HPV—could be a great ad for Gardasil.

Oh wait, this is the paper that published a much longer article suggesting Gardasil was dangerous.

(More stellar reporting by the Mail on what it calls anti-cercival-cancer "jabs" here.

Posted by rob!

on January 13, 2012 at 10:41 AM

Let's try that again, with a few fixes (hit "Post" instead of "Back"):

They should test that tissue sample for HPV—could be a great ad for anti-HPV vaccines.

Oh wait, this is the paper that published a much longer article suggesting Cervarix was dangerous.

(More stellar reporting by the Mail on what it calls anti-cervical-cancer "jabs" here.)

Posted by rob!

on January 13, 2012 at 10:47 AM

She coughed up something that looked like "a piece of liver" and thought nothing of it and threw it away? What the heck kind of coughing history does she have that a piece of liver flying out of her mouth is no big deal?

Posted by Samuel on January 13, 2012 at 10:59 AM

Praise Jesus!

Posted by Fifty-Two-Eighty

on January 13, 2012 at 10:59 AM

I wonder if it looked like Jesus.

Posted by TVDinner

on January 13, 2012 at 11:28 AM

If only we could get rid of all cancers this easily.

Posted by Reverse Polarity on January 13, 2012 at 11:28 AM

If her tumor was so close to the surface that it could be dislodged by coughing, couldn't it have been neatly excised with surgery rather than going the chemo route?

Posted by Zebes

on January 13, 2012 at 11:31 AM

My dad coughed up a chunk of the tumor in his throat after his radiation treatment. Gross, but I high-five'd him.

Oops, warning, not safe for before-lunch-reading.

Posted by Luckier on January 13, 2012 at 11:32 AM