Spontaneous total regression of malignant tumors. Myth or reality?

Spontaneous cancer regression is a rather rare phenomenon in oncological practice - it is defined as the disappearance of a malignant neoplasm without any special antitumor treatment or in case of obviously inadequate therapeutic treatment of this type of tumor process. To date, more than a thousand cases of spontaneous regression of cancer have been described in the scientific literature, but it is still difficult to say how widespread this phenomenon is in clinical practice. The etiology of spontaneous cancer regression has not been definitively elucidated. There are various hypotheses concerning the pathophysiology of spontaneous cancer regression. This phenomenon may be related to immune activation, elimination of a possible pathogen, hormonal changes, alteration of blood supply, cell apoptosis, tumor necrosis, infection, cytokines, chemokines, herbal remedies, etc. Therefore, knowledge of the mechanisms contributing to tumor self-destruction would be extremely important and a very useful factor for the development of more effective antitumor therapeutic techniques for the specific treatment of malignant neoplasms.This article briefly presents the currently existing hypotheses concerning the problem of spontaneous regression of malignant tumors and provides a number of actually confirmed examples of this phenomenon in clinical practice.