Chennai: Apollo Cancer Institute, a part of Apollo Hospitals Group, saved the life of a 23- year-old man from Assam by removing a massive 2.2 kg cancerous tumour from his chest.
Gaurav (name changed), a petty shopkeeper, was brought to Apollo Hospitals with severe breathing difficulty and continuous vomiting. Immediate physical examination and chest CT scan revealed the presence of a cancerous tumor the size of a football. He was immediately shifted to Apollo Cancer Institute for further examination and treatment.
The chest CT-scan / biopsy revealed that the tumour was cancerous and was adding pressure to his lungs, heart and food pipe, resulting in difficulty in breathing and swallowing food. This rare tumour in the diaphragm was 30 X 20 X 15 cm in size: only 25 such cases have been reported of such nature worldwide, a press release said.
Apollo Cancer Institute’s surgical oncologist, Dr P Venkat, and a team of doctors performed a thoracotomy procedure on the patient and removed the tumour.
“This was a very challenging case since the tumour was within the diaphragm (the rib cage) and was not evident. The size of the tumour was so huge that it had to be handled with utmost care and was removed safely from the patient without causing any damage to the other organs,” said Dr Venkat.