AIIMS doctors remove India's largest ovarian tumour

Doctors at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences(AIIMS) have removed a 17 kilogram ovarian tumour from a Bihar woman, creating a record of sorts in the process.

The main mass of the tumour removed during an eight-hour surgery on February 26 weighed 10.2 kilograms and measured 20-25 centimetres, doctors said. Until now, the largest ovarian tumour removed in India weighed 6.1 kilograms and was duly found its place in the Limca Book of Records, doctors added.

N Devi from Bihar’s Banka district was brought here in December by her husband in a hopeless condition, after attempts to treat her in two hospitals proved unsuccessful.
One of the hospitals gave her chemotherapy, while the other performed ovarian cystectomy.  Since the growth found so far was benign, the chemotherapy did not work, doctors said.

“Doctors in Patna gave up saying no surgery in India can correct her condition. On the other hand, my wife complained the pain was unbearable. I had lost hope when a friend told me I should bring her to AIIMS,” Devi’s husband Umesh Das, who takes up labour work in Delhi once a year, said.

Diagnosed in October 2013, the tumour had grown over Devi’s abdomen by December 2014, affecting her ovaries, uterus, intestine and bladder.According to doctors, the case falls under the rare category with an incidence of 2.5-7 per cent worldwide.

“The woman was suffering from Teratoma syndrome. The tumour was growing progressively but it was benign,” Dr M D Ray, surgical oncology department, AIIMS, said. 

“The final reports, are, however, awaited and some parts of the tumour might have been cancerous. “We wanted to make the affected areas a tumour-free zone. We eliminated the woman’s ovaries, uterus, parts of large intestine and bladder,” he added.

Doctors dealt with the most challenging part of the surgery by constructing a new bladder for the woman with small intestine.  With the oversized tumour inside, Devi was unable to lead a normal life for several months.

She is currently recouping at the AIIMS and it would be weeks before she could walk normally. After the tumour was removed, Devi’s weight came down to 43 kilograms from the earlier 60.5 kilograms.

Patients with similar cases have 90 per cent survival chances for the first five years, which doctors say is the most crucial period.

“There are very few risks later if they cross the first five years,” Neerja Bhatla from the department of gynaecology and obstetrics said.

With the ovaries and uterus eliminated, the woman will be put on hormone replacement therapy as a substitute for the lack of naturally occurring hormones.
She will have to visit the hospital once in three months after her discharge, doctors said.