PubMed1992
OBJECTIVE: To trace and describe patients with spontaneous regression of cancer (SRC) in the Netherlands. SETTING: The Helen Dowling Institute for biopsychosocial medicine. DESIGN: Descriptive. METHOD: Informal collection and collection by means of calls in two local medical journals. In these calls colleagues were asked to suggest possible candidates to contact the investigator. Upon contact permission was obtained to collect the medical data. When SRC could be established an interview was conducted with the patient and with persons in his environment. RESULTS: Seven patients with spontaneous regression of cancer were traced. These spontaneous regressions concerned adenocarcinoma (2 cases), non-Hodgkin lymphoma (2 cases), mesothelioma, undifferentiated carcinoma or sarcoma (liver) and choriocarcinoma (1 case each). CONCLUSION: A call for cases in two local medical journals for colleagues proved to be a fast and inexpensive searching method. None of these cases had been published previously. The frequency of SRC in the period of 1980 upto and including 1989 in the Netherlands can be estimated to be at least 1:100,000.