Why Do Some Cancers Cure Themselves?

Your body is incredibly good at repairing itself.

A skinned knee quickly fades to just a memory.

And if you give that runny  nose a few days of rest, you’ll be able to breathe  through it again in no time.

But one big problem that your  body often can’t fix is cancer.

Without treatment, cancer will keep growing nd spreading until it kills you.

Thankfully, we have many treatments -- chemotherapy and other treatments  that have saved millions of lives.

These therapies are pretty much your  only option for surviving deadly cancers.

However, there are a few cases where  something truly remarkable happens.

Doctors have reported some rare  instances of tumors shrinking or even disappearing without treatment.

Getting to the root of this medical marvel could help more cancer patients in the future.

That is, if we ever figure  out what the heck is going on.

So here’s what we know  about spontaneous remission.

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The idea that cancer might heal all by itself has been around for a long time.

The first mention of cancer  pulling a vanishing act shows up in the Ebers papyrus around 1550 BCE.

And perhaps the most famous historical  example dates back to the 13th century.

As the story goes, an Italian  priest called Peregrine Laziosi had a tumor in his leg that required amputation.