22-Year-Old Who Came to the Hospital After an Injury Was Diagnosed With a Rare, Deadly Cancer

A 22-year-old from Jerusalem arrived at the emergency department at Shaare Zedek Medical Center after suffering a chest injury and complaining of a bloody cough. Upon arrival, the imaging team performed a routine CT scan, which revealed a bleeding mass in his lung. He was rushed into emergency surgery to remove it, led by the head of the cardiothoracic surgery department, Dr. Danny Pink.

After pathology tests taken from the tumor came back, another surprising finding emerged, Zuhib had angiosarcoma, a tumor that develops in the cells lining blood vessels or the lymphatic system. "Angiosarcoma is an aggressive and rare tumor, and it has a high chance of developing resistance to the standard treatment protocols used around the world," says Dr. Daniella Katz, head of the sarcoma unit. Imaging tests, conducted under her leadership, showed that he had metastases in the chest and scalp, and he was referred for continued treatment in the oncology department headed by Prof. Nir Peled.

For six months, Zuhib underwent intensive chemotherapy treatments, which succeeded in temporarily stabilizing the disease, but remnants of the tumor remained in the lung. At this stage, the treatment team, led by Dr. Katz and Dr. Bassel Dabah, an oncology resident, decided to change course. In an unusual move, and after relying on a few reports in the world literature, they decided to adopt a unique treatment strategy for sarcomas, a combination of a chemotherapy line together with immunotherapy to boost the immune system, an approach known in other types of cancer but not commonly used for angiosarcoma.

"As far as is known worldwide, there is very little information on the effect of immunotherapy on this type of tumor after the completion of chemotherapy. However, in a groundbreaking development, after Zuhib received the immunotherapy, the disease completely regressed and Zuhib has been disease-free for more than a year," Dr. Katz explains. Zuhib continued to receive immunotherapy alone, and follow-up PET-CT scans, a year after the disease regressed, showed that the disease had disappeared completely, an unusual and exceptional result in such an aggressive disease.

"We must not give up on medical creativity and hope," Dr. Katz adds: "When it comes to a rare and aggressive tumor, it is our duty as caregivers to step outside the standard path and learn from combination treatments that have already proven themselves in other cancers. In the case of such a young patient, a combination of multidisciplinary teamwork and a thorough search for global experience led to an extraordinary and moving outcome. For us, this is a reminder that even in the most complex cases, we must not give up on medical creativity or hope."

The head of the oncology department at Shaare Zedek, Prof. Nir Peled, said: "We feel tremendous satisfaction from treating this case, which contributes to enriching the medical knowledge in the field, and, in effect, is writing the oncology textbooks through the treatment successes we are leading. Thanks to creative thinking, a culture of excellence, and the desire to research, give, and treat, the teams in our oncology department are among the best in Israel."

Zuhib concluded: "I returned to life and to work in full after a very difficult period. Thanks to the early diagnosis and the unique treatment, I recovered against all odds. My message to everyone is to get checked and never give up. I want to say a big thank you to the amazing team at Shaare Zedek that saved my life."