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Homeopathic remedy failed to prevent flesh-eating infection, breast cancer

A rare and deadly flesh-eating infection as well as invasive breast cancer was diagnosed in a woman who went to hospital with severe pain and a foul-smelling discharge from her right breast.

She had noticed a breast lump six months previously, and followed her family’s advice to treat it with a homeopathic tablet, according to a case study by health professionals in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, published in the Cureus Journal of Medical Science.

Business Insider reports the patient was diagnosed with a potentially deadly, flesh-eating infection called necrotising fasciitis. The doctors said her choice to opt for homeopathy as a sole treatment may have led to a delay in the cancer diagnosis. There is no scientific evidence that homeopathy can prevent or treat cancer.

Necrotising fasciitis is rare, especially in the breast, but it can progress quickly and kills 20% of people who get it.

It's not clear how she got the infection.

The condition tends to affect the limbs and the area between the genitals and anus. There have only been a handful of reports of this flesh-eating infection in the breast – usually after trauma, such as surgery, that allows bacteria to enter the breast tissue. Patients diagnosed with necrotising fasciitis usually have diabetes or are immunocompromised, though it has been reported in healthy people too.

The woman, who had diabetes and high blood pressure, was given antibiotics and had her right breast removed. Her cancer was treated with chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

Study details

Necrotising Infection of the Breast: A Case Report on a Rare Presentation of Breast Carcinoma

Javeria Tariq, Kulsoom Fatima, Muhammad Usman Tariq, Sana Zeeshan

Published in Cureus on 26 April 2022

Abstract
Necrotising infection (NI) of the breast associated with underlying malignancy is a rare phenomenon characterised by necrosis of breast parenchyma, causing a delay in diagnosis and even leading to sepsis. We present a case of a 42-year-old female with NI of the right breast while on homeopathic treatment for a right breast lump for six months. Tissue culture showed a polymicrobial infection and histopathology established the diagnosis of breast carcinoma. After treating the NI, her breast cancer was managed as per standard guidelines.

 

Business Insider article – Woman diagnosed with a 'flesh-eating' breast infection and breast cancer after weeks of severe pain (Open access)

 

Cureus article – Necrotizing Infection of the Breast: A Case Report on a Rare Presentation of Breast Carcinoma (Creative Commons Licence)

 

See more from MedicalBrief archives:

 

UK man wins over £1m damages after losing leg to necrotising faciitis

 

Young girl loses leg to necrotising fasciitis

 

Fasciitis after dentistry

 

 

 

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