An enormous tumor that weights 8 kgs and is about 10-12 inches in diameter was extracted from a 57 years old woman’s abdomen on April 11 at CMRI, CK Birla Hospitals, Kolkata.

The tumor has been budding for the last four years and had roofed almost the entire abdomen making her difficult to digest the food. A CT scan revealed the tumor, but surgeons were astonished by its actual size that could be assessed from the scan. They said tumors of this size was very rare.

The woman, a resident of Katwa in Murshidabad had consulted doctors in CMRI hospital a few months ago. She had abdominal pain and complained that her stomach always felt hefty and full. CMRI gastro surgeon Dr. Ajay Mandal said “We detected a tumor and decided on a surgery but we had no idea it was so giant”. The surgery was a part of four-member surgical team that included gastro-surgeon Dr. Sanjay De Bakshi.

The tumor originated in the sigmoid colon mesentery region and spread across whole abdomen called Lipoma in medical parlance, it is formed out of fat cells and are non-cancerous. “It was not life threating, but the woman had stopped the intake of food due to difficulty in digestion” said Dr. Mandal.

The surgery was 2 hours long and the patient was discharged on April 13. Doctors however, warned that such tumors can reoccur as it is not impossible for her to have another tumor but of this size is unlikely. The part of the large bowel with cancer is removed, along with surrounding lymph nodes. Removal of the colon is called a colectomy.When cancer is found in the sigmoid colon, the sigmoid colon is removed. The descending colon is then reconnected to the rectum.

Most colon cancer originates from noncancerous, or benign, tumors called adenomatous polyps that form on the inner walls of the large intestine. Cancerous cells may spread from malignant tumors to other parts of the body through the blood and lymph systems. Some early colon cancers (stage 0 and some early stage I tumors) and most polyps can be removed during a colonoscopy. This is a procedure that uses a long flexible tube with a small video camera on the end that's put into the person's rectum and threaded into the colon.