The victim says had it not been for the encounter with the predator he would never have gone to hospital, revealing his cancer.
A man has said his life was saved by a shark attack when it revealed he had a cancerous tumour.
Eugene Finney had been on a family holiday on the California coast when he was attacked by the predator while swimming.
The violent encounter at Huntington Beach left the father-of-two bloodied and with a gash down his back.
He told CBS Boston: "Something struck me from behind.
"I'd never been hit like that before. It was pretty jarring. It kind of gave me an instant whiplash."
Managing to escape from the water, he added: "That's when my daughter said to me, Daddy, how come your back is all bloody?"
The beach was closed a short time later after two sharks were spotted in the water.
Mr Finney said: "That night I started having pretty serious chest and back pains."
And it continued to get worse on his return home to Fitchburg, Massachusetts.
A visit to hospital confirmed the pain was caused by internal bruising caused by the attack.
However, the medical staff who examined him also found he had a cancer.
"They had discovered a growth, or a tumour, on my right kidney about the size of a walnut," Mr Finney said.
After undergoing surgery to remove it, he said: "If this didn’t happen with the shark, causing me to go in with this chest pain, I would have never known about this cancer."
The surgeon who operated on him, Dr Ingolf Tuerk, of St Elizabeth’s Medical Center, Brighton, said: "It led to a situation that saved his life.
"That’s pretty fascinating when you think about it."
Mr Finney is making a good recovery and he has not needed any follow-up treatment, thanks to the doctors being able to catch the cancer early.
He said: "I feel fortunate. I really feel like I’ve gotten a second chance at life and I’m not going to blow it."
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