By John Ely Deputy Health Editor for Mailonline
17:15 Jul 16, 2024, updated 18:08 Jul 16, 2024
Cancer can be hard to detect until it is too late, so it is important to know the possible symptoms, but some are stranger than others.
From voices telling you to see a doctor, mysterious cravings for lettuce to strange behavior from beloved pets, doctors have come across some truly bizarre cases.
Here, MailOnline documents some of the strangest and most common symptoms of a devastating disease that affects almost 400,000 Britons and two million Americans every year.
Hearing voices and foreign languages
If you suddenly hear people who aren’t there, it’s a frightening sign that you’re losing your mind.
For some people, hearing voices has saved their lives and let them know they have cancer.
In one astonishing case, a terrified woman was given detailed instructions to seek medical help from someone who did not exist.
The woman, known in the archives only as AB, was sitting at home in 1984 when she suddenly heard voices in her head.
They said to her, ‘Please don’t be afraid. I know it must be upsetting to hear me talking to you like this, but this is the easiest way I could think of. My friend and I used to work at the children’s hospital, Great Ormond Street, and we want to help you.’
AB had never been to this hospital before and in panic sought help from her GP, who urgently referred her to a psychiatrist. He prescribed her medication, which made the voices disappear.
However, they came back when she was on holiday and urged her to return to England. They even gave her an address to go to, which turned out to be the CT department of a hospital in London.
When she arrived, the voices told her that she had a tumor in her brain and that she needed to have a scan, which she did.
When the scan was analyzed, it turned out to be a shocking meningioma, a type of tumor that grows in the membrane that supports the brain. It measured 6.4 by 4 cm.
A neurosurgeon recommended surgery, which AB and the voices agreed to. The surgery was successful, and when she woke up, AB said she heard the voices say, “We’re glad we could help you. Goodbye.” She never heard them again.
Dr Ikechukwu Obialo Azuonye, who documented the case in the British Medical Journal, suggested that AB may have subconsciously known that something was wrong and that this was manifested in the form of voices.
A more recent case involved a nurse who thought her colleagues were speaking a different language during a meeting at work, but this actually turned out to be a sign of a brain tumor.
Lucy Woodhouse, 43, said before her diagnosis she suffered from severe headaches that felt like a hangover and found it difficult to read.
But in a meeting with colleagues, the Hereford nurse found she couldn’t understand what others were saying. Later tests revealed she had a meningioma the size of a golf ball.
She recalled, “I just felt like I couldn’t understand anything anyone was saying — I’m usually pretty observant, but they might as well have been speaking Chinese. I thought they were speaking a different language.”
In May, she underwent major surgery to remove the tumor, which grew just three millimeters from her optic nerve and could have caused her to go blind.
Mysterious food cravings or addictions
Cravings for treats like chocolate are common, but a sudden urge to eat less desirable foods could be a sign of cancer.
Such was the case for Elsie Campbell, who in 2004 initially considered her sudden desire to eat four whole lettuces a day a strange but harmless passing fad.
Fortunately for Mrs. Campbell, her husband Jim, a scientist, suspected there might be more to it.
He discovered that lettuce contains a nutrient, a natural antioxidant called sulforaphane, that is lacking in breast cancer patients. This prompted him to encourage his wife to have herself tested and she discovered a lump on one of her breasts.
A later visit to the doctor confirmed that she had the disease.
Fortunately, Mrs Campbell, 52, an accounting assistant from Derby, made a full recovery because the cancer was caught early.
She says: ‘One day I woke up and suddenly had a craving for lettuce.
‘I used to eat it in salads, but suddenly I couldn’t get enough of it. I could eat three or four whole lettuces a day. I would eat a whole iceberg lettuce at work and then sit on the bus home thinking about more and more food.
“I came home and cut one up and ate it like a watermelon. I knew something was wrong — and my husband and my sons were getting really worried about me.”
She added: ‘It’s only now that I realise my body was making me eat lettuce to fight the cancer. It was like my body was trying to heal itself.
‘Oddly enough, since the lump was removed, I haven’t wanted to eat a single leaf of lettuce. The cravings have completely disappeared.’
Man’s best friend detects cancer
Every dog owner will attest to how powerful their dog’s nose is, especially when it comes to sniffing out potential snacks.
However, for some pet owners, their humble dogs have been found to be able to detect serious diseases.
One of those people was grandmother Lindsey Thwaites from Chapeltown, South Yorkshire.
She claims her troublesome dog Brian ‘just wouldn’t leave her alone’ and kept sniffing her bum.
Mrs Thwaites, 51, was eventually persuaded to seek medical advice and was diagnosed with anal cancer.
She recalls: ‘The way Brian harassed me saved my life. He encouraged me to go to my GP.
“Brian only comes for love when he wants love, but he just won’t leave me alone.”
Mrs Thwaites examined herself and found a lump the size of a marble in her genitals. She sought help from her GP and was diagnosed with stage three anal cancer.
Another woman with a similar experience was Trisha Allison, 50, from Wilford, Nottingham, who said her collie, Luna, was the cause of her breast cancer.
She remembered lying on the floor watching TV when Luna jumped on her and continued to sniff and push conspicuously at her breast, something Mrs. Allison normally never did.
About 45 minutes later, she began to feel pain in her chest and decided to get herself checked out. After deciding that “something didn’t feel right,” she went to her family doctor, who referred her to a hospital where they performed a mammogram and MRI scan.
The married mother of two underwent a biopsy and was diagnosed with breast cancer two weeks later, in April last year.
Research has shown that dogs can detect cancer in some cases.
It is thought that if a dog is diagnosed with cancer in its owner, it may change its behavior by paying more attention to its owner, sniffing him or ‘comforting’ him by gently licking his hands or feet, or lying down next to his owner for no apparent reason.
The most common signs of cancer to look out for
The cases described above are notable for their unusual nature, but for most people the symptoms of cancer will probably be less severe, but no less serious.
Professor Karol Sikora, a world-renowned oncologist with more than 40 years of experience, said people should be aware of classic symptoms such as lumps, bleeding and changes in bowel movements.
He said, ‘If there are complaints for more than two weeks, if there is a symptom, then you have to do something about it.’
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He added that men and older people are generally less likely to tell a doctor about possible cancer symptoms and should take the signals their body is giving them seriously.
Rachel Orritt, health information manager at Cancer Research UK, adds: ‘There are more than 200 different types of cancer, so there is no such thing as a ‘typical’ cancer symptom.
‘Sometimes symptoms affect specific parts of the body, such as our stomach or skin. But signs can also be more general and include unexplained weight loss, fatigue or pain.
“You know your body best, so talk to your doctor if something doesn’t look or feel right or isn’t going away. In most cases, it’s not cancer, but if it is, the chance of success is greater if you catch it early.”
Other symptoms include coughing, chest pain and shortness of breath, bloating, changes in moles, unexplained weight loss, abdominal or back pain, itchy or yellow skin, and fatigue.