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A 60-year-old man in Castellón, Spain, presented with two weeks of progressive headaches and mild behavioral changes; CT scans showed multiple lesions so closely resembling metastatic tumors that physicians suspected advanced cancer.
Exhaustive oncology testing found no malignancy anywhere in his body, and a detailed MRI followed by blood work confirmed neurocysticercosis — a parasitic infection of the central nervous system caused by the pork tapeworm Taenia solium.
The case, published in the CDC journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, makes a pointed argument for clinicians in non-endemic countries: a brain lesion that looks like cancer is not always cancer.
A Diagnosis Nobody Expected in a Man Who Had Never Left Spain The patient was a lifelong resident of Castellón with no history of travel to any region where neurocysticercosis is endemic.
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