They tend to just sit there in their cyst." "For reasons we don't understand, oftentimes, the worm will just kind of live in its cyst for a number of years and not cause any symptoms," Wilson adds.

In the intestines, the worm can grow to 2 to 7 meters in length ... Kennedy told the New York Times that doctors told him the cyst they saw on his scan contained the remains of a parasite.

The beet cyst nematode, Heterodera schachtii, is a microscopic worm which feeds from the fibrous roots of sugar beet and other hosts. The nematodes are soil-borne and can persist in infected ...