35-pound tumor removed from woman's abdomen 01:03
Story highlights
- Irianita Rojas, 22, had lived with the ovarian tumor since she was 13 years old
- It took surgeons three hours to remove the tumor in what a hospital described as a "medical feat"
- "I'm happy now because I'm recovering and I will be able to fulfill my dream of studying accounting," Rojas said
(CNN)Peruvian
doctors have removed what was described by health officials as a
"giant" 16-kilogram (35.3-pound) tumor from the abdomen of a woman in
Lima, the capital of Peru.
The
patient, identified by the Peruvian Healthy Ministry as Irianita Rojas,
22, had lived with the ovarian tumor since she was 13 years old. The
tumor grew so large that she looked as if she were pregnant.
"I
never thought I would be operated on," Rojas said, according to a
statement published by the Health Ministry. "I'm happy now because I'm
recovering and I will be able to fulfill my dream of studying
accounting."
It took surgeons at the
Archbishop Loayza National Hospital three hours to remove the tumor
Saturday in what the hospital described as a "medical feat." Dr. Luis
Garcia Bernal, the hospital director, said the patient will stay there
for observation.
"Irianita is
recovering and can be released, but she will stay in Lima for a few more
days to so that we can practice additional exams to define the
treatment she should follow when she returns to (the province of)
Loreto," Garcia Bernal said Wednesday.
Rojas
lives in Tamshiyacu, a remote town in the Peruvian jungle in the
northernmost province of Loreto in the Amazon region bordering Brazil.
She
says she had already resigned herself to living with the tumor until a
fateful, coincidental meeting with Anibal Velasquez Valdivia, Peru's
health minister. Velasquez was traveling in the region this month to
monitor the progress of the construction of a health center in
Tamshiyacu when Rojas' case came to his attention.
Officials
say Velasquez immediately gave orders to have Rojas transported to Lima
to be treated at Archbishop Loayza National Hospital, which belongs to
the Peruvian Health Ministry. Rojas and her mother, Karina Rasma, were
flown to the capital on February 16. Medical examinations leading to the
surgery began right away.
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Dr.
Walter Curran, executive director at the Emory Winship Cancer Institute
in Atlanta, called the size of Rojas' tumor extraordinarily rare. There
are many different types of ovarian tumors, he said, and a number of
tumors can grow that large.
He said
that young women tend to have more health screenings than men, largely
because of the need for gynecologic and obstetric care, and this tumor
speaks to the need for regular medical care.
Garcia
Bernal says Rojas has a good outlook. Even though they were dealing
with a malignant tumor, he said, it was considered low intensity,
meaning no chemotherapy will be needed. Ninety percent of patients with
this prognosis recover fully, the doctor said.
Health
officials said Rojas' growing tumor caused her constant pain that
prevented a normal life. She had dropped out of school and had
difficulty walking and even breathing.
Speaking
after the successful surgery, the patient's mother became emotional,
according to a statement issued by the Health Ministry. "Thanks for
giving my daughter a new life," Rasma told doctors.