Tumormarker, OBE and stepping into the body

Aged 26, Francis was told by her sister that she had an affair with Francis' then husband. Nine months thereafter Francis, as she told me, “came down with cancer, while she had his baby.” Ovarian carcinoma was diagnosed, surgically extirpated, and treated with chemotherapy; the chance of cure was estimated at 50% to 60%. Francis divorced and developed a new intimate relationship. She was psychologist and went to extensive psychotherapy and dream analysis and practiced meditation and yoga. She had learned how to engage in out-of-body experiences (OBE). One night, Francis dreamed about climbing a “Godmountain”: deciding to “go down” from the mountain was synonymous with living, going up was to die.
In that period she started to suffer from sharp abdominal pain, burning heat, nausea, headaches, and excessive fatigue. Six months after the dream, her tumormarker CA125 had risen to 110 U/ml in plasma. She was told by her gynaecologist that she suffered a recurrence of her ovarian cancer. A prognosis was given for 2-month survival. Her use of (vaginal) estrogen cream was halted. No further treatment was initiated. Together with her new friend, Francis  took an already planned, short trip to a mountainous area. All the way down and upon arrival she cried deeply, fearing her impending death. The mountainous area had some resemblance with the site in her dream. Subsequently, when her friend was asleep, she had an out-of-body experience, during which she observed the scenery with her friend and her body laying on the ground. She considered all of her situation -in this moment of the interview Francis had a remarkable, very conscious, evaluating (like tasting) look on her face - and decided that she wanted to live in that (her) body. 

On the following day, she felt excellent. Three weeks later the tumormarker CA 125 was established. It had dropped sharply to 5 U/ml.

Estrogen was restarted after five months’  discontinuation. The CA 125 level remained stable—approximately 10 U/ml—for at least seven years and she has been in good health.

This is not a proven case of spontaneous regression of cancer. There is a small chance that the rise of CA 125 in this patient was due to infection or endometriosis or the like. Therefore the findings have not been included in the hypothesis generating process of our study on spontaneous remissions. Yet, we may well wonder if autoscopic experiences and a choice for living in the here and now are involved in psychophysiological processes.