A 32-year-old woman was blaming her diet for her bulging belly until she discovered that it was a 22-kilogram cancerous tumour surviving in her abdomen.
In a rare ovarian cancer surgery conducted at Delhi-based Dharamshila Narayana Superspeciality Hospital, a woman – who wishes to mask her identity – came there with an extremely swollen abdomen.
She was noticing unusual changes in her body for the last nine months. In fact, she visited a few doctors and concluded that the heaviness and bulging of her tummy could be due to certain hormonal changes.
Diet change wasn’t the answer
“She also went for an alternate therapy and modified her diet, and started exercises to lose weight. She started consuming only fruits and vegetables,” said Dr Satinder Kaur, senior consultant and gynae-oncologist at Dharamshila Narayana Superspeciality Hospital, who successfully performed this rare big tumour removal surgery.
When Kaur examined her for the first time in OPD, she said, “I was surprised at how malnourished she had become while living with a huge tumour inside of her.”
However, her condition worsened as she started facing trouble with eating and then decided to visit the hospital after the swelling became remarkably noticeable.
“She approached us after eight to nine months of the tumour when symptoms became intolerable and she felt as if her stomach was going to burst,” said Kaur.
With ultrasound and other advanced tests, it was suspected to be ovarian cancer which could mean future inability to bear children.
“She was in a state of shock as she did not have apparent symptoms of ovarian cancer. Earlier, I have done several ovarian cancer surgeries but the size was never so big,” said Kaur, while adding that “it was rare with a 22-kg mass. Fortunately, we detected it in time.”
After the diagnosis, a team of four surgeons, led by Kaur, along with a team of anaesthesiologists conducted the three-hour-long surgery in which the tumour was removed while leaving the uterus and an ovary intact.
Hormonal functions normal, fertility restored
The team successfully operated while keeping her uterus and another ovary intact so that she can opt for having children in future – relieving her worries about embracing motherhood.
“We detected her cancer in time when it was in stage 1 where preserving the uterus and an ovary was possible. Her hormonal functions are normal and she can conceive now,” Kaur said.
Generally, the symptoms of such cancer could include vague bloating, discomfort in the pelvis or bladder, and bowel changes.
With the chances of recurrence reduced to only about 10%, the patients need to remain constantly vigilant.
Following breast and cervical, ovarian cancer is the third most common gynaecological cancer in Indian women. Ovaries are part of the female reproductive system and every normal woman has two, one on either side of the uterus.
The National Cancer Registry projects the incidence of ovarian cancer is between 5.4 to 8 cases per one lakh women. The risk starts increasing from age 35 and reaches a peak between the ages of 55 and 64 years.
With a five-year survival rate of about 49 per cent, 46,000 new cases of ovarian cancer are detected each year in India.
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