Football-sized tumour removed

A tumour comparable in dimensions to a football was removed from intestines of M. Ramulu of Mahboobabad in Ranga Reddy district. He had been carrying it for a decade, what doctors across the world have seen less than a dozen times. It is a tumour rare at both micro and macro levels.

Surgeons at Continental Hospital removed the 1.5-kg tumour from the small intestine of the 60-year-old patient. According to surgeon Vijay Ramachandran, Mr. Ramulu’s abdomen, before tumour-removal, resembled that of a pregnant woman. Despite having symptoms for about a decade, his visits and consultations at numerous hospitals proved futile. His case was often misdiagnosed as a pancreatic cyst.

“It may seem in hindsight like an easy diagnosis, it actually was not. Besides imaging, we performed a dye-test for pancreas to see a link between the tumour and pancreas as was believed by other experts. Surprisingly, we did not see a link and were able to rule that out,” said Dr. Ramachandran.

While its size, 25 cm by 25 cm, makes the tumour rare, its tissue is also of rare origin. Known medically as gangliocytic paranglioma, it is a tumour with origins in the nerve cells of the intestine that receive signals from the brain.

“This tumour had a large amount of blood supply. It is extremely rare in occurrence as just about five to 10 cases are documented. It grew to this size because it was not operated earlier,” Dr. Ramachandran added.

The tumour can reoccur at the same location, warranting frequent checkups, the doctor said.