Subcutaneous Taenia crassiceps infection in a patient with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma

Taenia crassiceps is a tapeworm whose adult form lives in the intestine of carnivores, mostly foxes, in North America, Europe, and Russia. Rodents are natural intermediate hosts, and they harbor the cyst-like larvae (metacestodes, cysticerci) in the peritoneal cavity, where they multiply by asexual budding. Humans serve as intermediate hosts when food or water contaminated with feces from infected canids or felids is consumed. In humans, metacestodes develop in the subcutis and among muscular tissue. Most infections occur in patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome.(1-3) Thus, immunosuppression seems to be a prerequisite for infection. In addition, immunocompetent patients have been reported in whom larvae settled in the anterior chamber of the eye or grew subretinally (Table 1). In this report, we describe the first case of an infection with the larval form of T crassiceps in a patient with underlying malignancy. The patient was treated for a non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and was thereby immunosuppressed. Combined surgical removal of the cystic larvae from a subcutaneous site and treatment with albendazole and praziquantel led to a complete cure.