A team of doctors at Delhi's All India Medical Institute (AIIMS) has succeeded in removing a 12 kg tumor from the body of a 24-year-old woman. This tumor had spread to many parts of the woman's body - liver, urinary bladder, rectum, major blood vessels and muscles. The woman's life could be saved after this rare operation done in three stages.

Doctors who performed the woman's surgery said that Growing Teratoma Syndrome (GTS) is a rare disease found in patients suffering from non-seminomatous germ cell tumor (NSGCT) of the ovary. Usually, in such patients, the tumor continues to spread and grow even after chemotherapy, but the tumor markers in their blood become normal.

What did the experts say?

According to a news published in TOI, MD Ray, Professor of the Department of Surgical Oncology at AIIMS, said that after complete removal of the tumor in three stages, the patient's weight has reduced by 12 kg. At the time of surgery, the woman's liver was functioning only 30% and the tumor had spread to the remaining liver. This is the minimum limit at which the patient can be operated on. Otherwise the patient would have suffered liver failure.

Dr. Ray further said that removing the tumor from different parts of the stomach, especially the liver, was a big challenge because there was continuous bleeding. He also said that it was very difficult to reach such a large and stable tumor. In this case, the tumor was around the left external iliac blood vessels (which provide the main blood supply to the leg) and in the PSOAS major muscles (a pair of muscles that run from the spine to the groin on either side of the waist). had also spread.

The woman was diagnosed with tumor in May 2022.

Delhi resident Cheena James, while talking to Times of India, said that her tumor was detected in May 2022. His first surgery was done at Loknayak Hospital. Doctors removed the tumor, but it came back again and this time it had spread to other organs as well. He told that the doctors referred me to AIIMS at the end of 2022. The last surgery was done in December 2023 and now she is doing well.

How deadly is teratoma?

Teratomas are reported to have a survival rate of more than 90%, while this drops to 45–50% in malignant transformation. Dr Ray said that patients suffering from growing teratoma syndrome should not be considered suitable for operation unless they are examined in a high volume center and specialists fail to perform radical resection.

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