Tumour like a football

An Indian woman has had a tumour as big as a football removed from the side of her face, 25 years after it first developed.

Doctors who performed the operation believe 67-year-old Lakhmani Devi's parotid gland tumour, which weighed nearly 2kg, may have been the biggest ever removed from a human.

"It was made of solid tissue and was the largest I have come across in all the medical books," KK Handa, the operating surgeon at New Delhi's All India Institute of Medical Sciences, told AFP.

"The patient was told by doctors in her village that she would die if it was removed so she coped with it for decades. But she is now eating well and should make a full recovery."

Devi, from the eastern state of Jharkhand, is expected to be discharged from hospital 10 days after the surgery on February 4.

Her son, Lallan Singh, said that the operation would give his mother a new lease of life.

"The tumour kept on increasing," he said. "She felt uncomfortable and embarrassed, and stopped going out of the house. We can't thank the doctors enough."

15kg tumour removed in 2007
In 2007, Chinese doctors removed part of a patient's crippling 15 kg tumour mass drooping from his head and face.

Huang Chuncai, 31, from the southern province of Hunan, could hardly speak because the mass was so huge. His left eye was totally covered, his left ear hung down to his shoulder, and his right ear and jaw were engulfed.

The fleshy tumour was about 57 cm long and had a 97 cm perimeter. - (Sapa-AFP/ReutersHealth)

Read more:
15 kg face tumour horror

February 2009