Cancer can be hard to detect until it’s too late, so knowing the potential symptoms is vital — but some are weirder than others.
From voices giving instructions to visit a doctor, mysterious cravings for lettuce and even strange behaviour from the beloved family pet, doctors have encountered some truly bizarre cases.
Here, MailOnline documents some of the oddest ones, and some of the more common signs of a devastating illness that strikes almost 400,000 Brits and two million Americans each year.
Hearing voices and strange languages
Suddenly hearing people who aren’t there is a terrifying potential sign that you are losing grip on your sanity.
But for some people, hearing voices helped save their life and alert them to the fact they have cancer.
Lucy Woodhouse, 43, learnt she had a tumour on her brain after sitting in a meeting at work and thinking her colleagues were speaking a different language
She recalled: ‘I was sat in a senior meeting at work and I just felt like I didn’t understand anything anyone was saying – I’m usually quite on the ball but they might as well have been speaking Chinese.
In one astonishing case, a terrified woman was given detailed instructions to seek medical help by someone who didn’t exist.
The woman, known referred to in records only as AB, was sitting at home in 1984 when she suddenly heard voices in her head.
They told her: ‘Please don’t be afraid. I know it must be shocking for you to hear me speaking 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 would like to help you.’
AB had never been to this hospital and in a state of panic sought help from her GP who gave her an urgent referral to a psychiatrist. He prescribed her medication which made the voices disappear.
However, they returned while she was on holiday and urged her to return to England, even giving her an address to go to — which turned out to be the CT department of a London hospital.
Upon arriving the voices told her she had a tumour in her brain and needed to have a scan, which she did.
A scan had revealed Lucy had a golf-ball sized tumour
Analysis of the scan shockingly revealed a meningioma — a type of tumour that grows in the membrane supporting the brain — measuring 2.5 inches by 1.5 inch.
A neurosurgeon recommended surgery which AB, and the voices, agreed to. The surgery was successful and, upon waking, AB said she heard the voices say: ‘We are pleased to have helped 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 something was wrong and this manifested as voices.
A more recent case involved a nurse who thought her colleagues were speaking a different language in a work meeting but this was actually a sign of brain tumour.
Lucy Woodhouse, 43, said she had been experiencing severe headaches which felt like hangovers and struggled to read aloud before her diagnosis.
But in a meeting with colleagues the nurse, from Hereford, found herself unable to understand what others were saying. Tests later revealed she had a golf ball-sized meningioma.
She recalled: ‘I just felt like I didn’t understand anything anyone was saying — I’m usually quite on the ball 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 tumour, which was growing just three millimetres from her optical 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 consume less desirable food could be a sign of cancer.
That was the case for Elsie Campbell, who initially thought a sudden desire to eat four whole lettuces a day in 2004 was a strange but harmless passing fancy.
Elsie Campbell who initially thought a sudden desire to eat four whole lettuces day back in 2004 was a strange but harmless passing fancy but it turned out to be a sign of cancer
Luckily for Mrs Campbell, her husband Jim, a research scientist, suspected there might be something more to it.
He worked out that lettuce contains a particular nutrient, a natural antioxidant called sulforaphane, that is lacking in breast cancer patients. This prompted him to urge his wife to check herself and she found a lump on one of her breasts.
A visit to the doctor later confirmed she had the disease.
Thankfully Mrs Campbell, 52, an accounts assistant from Derby, made a full recovery thanks to the cancer being caught early.
She recalled: ‘I woke up one day and suddenly fancied some lettuce.
‘I’d always eaten it in salads, but suddenly, I just couldn’t get enough of it. I could eat three or four whole lettuces a day. I’d eat a whole iceberg lettuce at work, and sit on the bus on the way home thinking about eating more and more.
‘I’d get home and cut one into chunks and eat it like a watermelon. I knew something wasn’t quite right — and my husband and my sons started to get quite worried about me.’
She added: ‘It’s only now that I realise my body was making me eat lettuce to combat the cancer. It was like my body was trying to cure itself.
‘Strangely, since the lump was removed, I haven’t wanted to eat a single lettuce leaf — the cravings completely vanished.’
Man’s best friend sniffing out cancer
Any dog owner will attest to the power of their pooch’s nose, especially when it comes to sniffing out potential snacks.
However, for some pet owners, their humble hound managed to sniff out serious disease.
Lindsey Thwaites, 51, blamed her discomfort on painful piles, but after her dog Brian kept sniffing her bum, she booked an appointment with her GP and eventually received a cancer diagnosis
Brian a two-and-a-half-year-old border collie, was consistently sniffing the same area making Mrs Thwaites worried he could sniff cancer
Trisha Allison, 50, from Wilford, Nottingham, has credited her pooch Luna with helping her discover she had breast cancer
The two-year-old collie cross then kept sniffing and nudging at her chest, and laying next to her, which Trisha said she never does
One such person was grandmother Lindsey Thwaites, from Chapeltown, South Yorkshire.
She claims her pestering pooch Brian just ‘would not leave me alone’ and would constantly sniff her bum.
Mrs Thwaites, 51, was eventually spooked into seeking a medical opinion and was diagnosed with anal cancer as a result.
She recalled: ‘Brian mithering me saved my life, he pushed me to go to my GP.
‘Brian only comes for a love when he wants a love but he would just not leave me alone.’
Mrs Thwaites examined herself and found a marble-sized lump in her genitals. Seeking help from her GP she was diagnosed with stage three anal cancer.
Another woman with a similar experience was Trisha Allison, 50, from Wilford, Nottingham, who credited her collie cross Luna with catching her breast cancer.
She recalled how she was lying down watching TV when Luna jumped on her and noticeably kept sniffing and nudging at her chest, which Mrs Allison said she never normally did.
Around 45 minutes later, she began feeling a pain in her chest and decided to check herself out. After deciding that ‘something didn’t feel right’ she went to her GP, who referred her to a hospital where they performed a mammogram and MRI scan.
The married mother-of-two then underwent a biopsy and was diagnosed with breast cancer two weeks later, in April last year.
Studies have shown dogs can sniff out cancer in some cases.
It is thought that, if a dog detects cancer in their owner, they may change their behaviour by paying them more attention, sniffing them or ‘comforting’ them by gently licking their hands or feet, or laying beside them for for no apparent reason.
The more common cancer signs you need to be aware of
The cases described above are notable for their unusual nature but for most people the signs of cancer will probably be more mundane, but no less serious.
Professor Karol Sikora, a world-renowned oncologist with over 40 years’ experience, said people should be aware of classic symptoms like lumps, bleeding and changes in bowel habits.
A new analysis has shown the years of life an average cancer patient in the UK is expected to lose, the amount of life lost in terms of all cancers has increased to 14.1 from 13.4 in the 1980s
A new analysis has shown the years of life an average cancer patient in the UK is expected to lose, the amount of life lost in terms of all cancers has increased to 14.1 from 13.4 in the 1980s
Breast cancer is the UK’s most common cancer with almost 56,000 cases diagnosed per year
He said: ‘Anything that persists for more than two weeks, any symptom, you should do something about.’
He added that men, and older people, are traditionally less likely to tell a doctor about potential cancer symptoms need to take the signs their body was sending them seriously.
Rachel Orritt, health information manager at Cancer Research UK, added: ‘There are over 200 different types of cancer, which is why there’s no such thing as a ‘typical’ cancer symptom.
‘Sometimes symptoms affect specific areas of the body, such as our stomach or skin. But signs can also be more general, and include unexplained weight loss, tiredness or pain.
‘You know your body best, so talk to your doctor if something doesn’t look or feel quite right or won’t go away. In most cases it won’t be cancer – but if it is, finding it at an early stage means that treatment is more likely to be successful.’
Other signs include coughing, chest pain and breathlessness, bloating, changes in moles, unexplained weight loss, tummy or back pain, itchy or yellow skin and fatigue.
