A biopsy-needle (on the CT scan coming in from below) was used to collect some tissue for pathological analysis. This showed poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma.
The patient was told that no treatment was available and that the prognosis was very bad. Following this, he immediately called for his wife. When she entered his room, they threw their arms around each other and, according to his wife, they met as “one human being to another” for the first time in their marriage. His wife offered to accompany him on his visits to the consultant. They went weekly, each time drinking coffee together and talking. For the first time in their relationship the patient offered her some excuse for his problems with alcohol use during their life together. His wife felt that they “were now a couple” and that “something had been born” when they had thrown their arms around each other. The patient's wife made the following drawing; it depicts the quality/ intensity of their relationship in the period surrounding the diagnosis and this contact:
The patient began to improve over a period of four months. On a CT scan, six months following the diagnosis, no tumor could be seen:
The patient was healthy for two years. Following a decline in frequency of contact with his wife, he sustained a recurrence of adenocarcinoma above the right clavicle. This was treated with radiotherapy. His abdominal tumors did not recur.
Essential activities and experiences precede spontaneous regression of cancer, as was seen in this case. If this patient had come for psychotherapy, prior to the spontaneous regression, many of us might have worked on his coping with his wife's departure, becoming more independant etc. We may well doubt if such therapeutic work would have been followed by a similar regression of cancer. Working on a repair of their marital relationship might not have been considered in modern therapeutic work. We, likely, should consider it more often.
