{"id":851766,"date":"2026-08-09T12:06:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T12:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/851766\/"},"modified":"2026-08-09T12:06:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T12:06:10","slug":"she-thought-she-had-cancer-all-she-needed-was-a-daily-pill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/851766\/","title":{"rendered":"She thought she had cancer. All she needed was a daily pill"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/a\/assets\/texttospeech.svg\" alt=\"Text to Speech Icon\" width=\"44\" height=\"44\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Listen to this article<\/p>\n<p>Estimated 2 minutes<\/p>\n<p>The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n<p>After months of chemotherapy and years of agonizing skin rashes, Cynthia McNeil was preparing for a life-altering bone marrow transplant.<\/p>\n<p>Then came a phone call that changed everything. She never had cancer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt the time it was devastating,\u201d McNeil said of the moment she learned her diagnosis was wrong.<\/p>\n<p>She said she was happy to know she didn&#8217;t have cancer, but sad for all she had gone through to that point.<\/p>\n<p>Instead of T-cell lymphoma, the Miramichi, N.B., resident actually had a rare, non-cancerous inflammatory condition known as L-HES (lymphocyte-variant hypereosinophilic syndrome). Because the rare condition mimics lymphoma symptoms, doctors frequently mistake one for the other.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Two photos show a leg suffering from a severe rash with black spots, and the leg after treatment mostly cleared up except for scars.\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1786277170_505_default.jpg\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.3333333333333333\" data-cy=\"image-img\"\/>Lymphocyte-variant hypereosinophilic syndrome or L-HES is commonly mistaken for lymphoma because both feature an abnormal presence of T-cells in the blood. Pictured are a patient&#8217;s legs before and after treatment. (Submitted photo)<\/p>\n<p>Her ordeal began in 2019 when a persistent, severe rash covered her arms and legs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was so itchy you could not scratch enough \u2014 I would scratch my legs raw,\u201d McNeil said.<\/p>\n<p>After doctors struggled to pinpoint the cause, she was eventually diagnosed with lymphoma. McNeil endured six rounds of chemotherapy, and while it did help with the itchy rash, her bloodwork remained abnormal.<\/p>\n<p>She was scheduled for a bone marrow transplant three times. The first two procedures were delayed by a COVID-19 infection and a leg lesion. Before the third attempt, her blood results landed on the desk of Dr. Luke Chen, a Halifax hematologist specializing in rare diseases.<\/p>\n<p>Chen quickly realized McNeil was suffering from a severe case of L-HES, not cancer.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"A man with a suit jacket and jeans leans on a railing in front of a window. He has a stethoscope around his neck.\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1786277170_238_default.jpg\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.3333333333333333\" data-cy=\"image-img\"\/>Dr. Luke Chen has an interest in rare inflammatory diseases, and was the one who discovered that McNeil did not have cancer but a rare condition known as L-HES. (Andie Mollins\/CBC)<\/p>\n<p>While the misdiagnosis was finally corrected, years of aggressive cancer treatments had already taken a devastating personal, physical and financial toll on McNeil, who is in her late 30s.<\/p>\n<p>She maxed out her sick leave and insurance coverage, spent thousands on prescriptions to manage chemo side-effects, and saw her fertility compromised just as she was planning to buy a home and have another child.<\/p>\n<p>Today, McNeil takes a single pill twice a day to manage her condition, and her physical symptoms are virtually gone.<\/p>\n<p>But while the rash is cleared, the years of unnecessary chemo leave a lingering shadow.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt had some long-lasting impacts on my life,\u201d McNeil said. \u201cChemo just drains you. It makes you feel terrible&#8230; you just feel sick.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>MORE TOP STORIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 2 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":851767,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[49,48,84],"class_list":["post-851766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=851766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/851767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=851766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=851766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=851766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}