Latest news with #tumor
Daily Mail
13 hours ago
- Health
- Daily Mail
Doctors remove tumor the 'size of a young child' from man's leg in groundbreaking operation
Doctors have removed a massive cancerous tumor the size of a young child from a man's leg. Mohd Salman, a 27-year-old from India, was diagnosed in 2019 with chondrosarcoma, a slow-growing cancer that forms in the connective tissue that protects the bones. For more than five years, the tumor in his leg grew slowly without causing him any pain. However, within the last six months, Salman's tumor ballooned in size to 76.5 pounds (34.7 kilograms), measuring four by two feet long - roughly the same weight as an eight-year-old child. Salman, a former laborer, was robbed of his ability to walk and completely bedridden in excruciating pain. After a handful of doctors across the Delhi and Uttar Pradesh areas of India failed to help Salman, orthopedic surgeon Dr Mohit Dhingra of AIMS Rishikesh hospital led the charge to remove the massive growth. On June 9, 2025, Dr Dhingra and his team removed the tumor entirely in a brutal six-hour operation. Dr Dhingra said: 'This was one of the most challenging operations we've taken on. The sheer weight and complexity of the tumor pushed our team to the edge of medical precision.' Chondrosarcoma is made up of cells in the cartilage, firm tissue that protects the end of the bones. It's most often found in the pelvis, hip or shoulder, though it can form in the spine in rare cases. The disease makes up one in four bone cancer cases in the U.S., adding up to 1,300 every year. The condition kills about one in five patients within the first five years. It's unclear if Salman's cancer spread to other organs or tissues, which could make his disease more difficult to treat. While chemotherapy and radiation can help control the spread of aggressive forms of chondrosarcoma, the main treatment is surgery. Salman's doctors first had to perform an MRI and an angiography, which visualizes blood vessels and arteries, to make sure they didn't hit any major structures during the operation. One wrong move could have led to severe bleeding and damage to any nearby organs. After six hours, doctors were able to remove the entire tumor with no complications. Hospital leadership have called the operation a landmark moment. Professor Meenu Singh, AIIMS-Rishikesh executive director, praised the surgical team's success, noting that it has raised the bar for handling extreme cases of rare cancers. Though the tumor was massive, it is dwarfed in comparison to other growths in medical literature. The largest tumor ever recorded, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, was 328 pounds (148.6). The growth was an ovarian tumor removed from a 43-year-old woman in 1906. More recently, in 2022, doctors in Brazil removed a 100-pound tumor from a 45-year-old woman after it grew for five years. It is unclear what kind of tumor it was. Salman is still hospitalized more than three weeks after the surgery and may need rehabilitation to learn how to walk and perform daily tasks again. He said: 'The doctors didn't just remove a tumor - they gave me my life back.'
Forbes
6 days ago
- Health
- Forbes
My Kidney Cancer Taught Me That Patients Aren't Consumers
concept - kidney tumor. Most normal people, when told they have kidney cancer, worry about what that means for their long-term health. I'm not normal. When I discovered I had a 1cm tumor growing on my left kidney, I wondered: 'How much is this going to cost me?' My lack of normality results in part from my profession – I'm a physician and behavioral scientist who believes that every experience is an excuse to conduct research. I'm also a famously discerning consumer (my euphemism for being a cheapskate). So when I realized I had a kidney mass that needed medical attention, I made sure to figure out how much every test and treatment would cost me. I found myself trying to live up to what free market enthusiasts say we need in this country – patients who bring consumer savviness to the medical marketplace. I was going to scrutinize my medical alternatives like a five-star chef at an organic farmer's market, squeezing the metaphorical offerings to determine which goods are worth which prices. But I quickly discovered that no patient is a decision- making island, and therefore healthcare consumerism will never work as well as its enthusiasts hope. My cancer journey began when I went to the bathroom and noticed bright red urine. I remember feeling simultaneously shocked because my urine was full of blood and disappointed that I hadn't felt pain that would signal a benign problem like kidney stones. 'Shit,' I thought to myself, 'could I have cancer?' A few days later, a CT scan revealed a 1cm mass hanging off the lower pole of my left kidney. My urologist explained that the kidney mass had nothing to do with my bloody urine: 'It's too small and too far away from the center of your kidney to account for hematuria.' 'Then what could have caused me to bleed?' I asked. 'Probably a vein in your prostate,' he answered. 'As you can see,' he said, pointing to the CT image which he pulled up on his computer screen, 'your prostate is quite large.' As for the kidney mass, the urologist confirmed that it was probably cancerous: 'But it's such a small size, we have a 98% chance of curing it. We just have to decide what treatment approach you like best.' One treatment alternative was cryotherapy. With this procedure, an interventional radiologist would stick a needle in my back and inject the tumor with freezing liquid. 'The main advantage of cryotherapy is its gentility,' he told me. 'You'll be playing tennis in a week', no small consideration for an avid exerciser like me. The disadvantages? 'Well, they will biopsy the mass before freezing it, but there is no guarantee the biopsy will yield diagnosable tissue, so we might never know whether the lesion they zap is cancerous or benign.' There was also a chance the freezing wouldn't kill all the tumor cells, an 8-10% likelihood, in fact, that the tumor would grow back over the next five years and require further treatment. Finally, to monitor for such a recurrence, I would need CT or MRI scans of my kidney 3, 6, 9, and 12 months after the treatment, plus annually for the next five years. Determined to be a savvy shopper, I did some quick math. I had already paid $45 to see my primary care doctor, another $45 to see the urologist, and another $150 for the CT scan. (These payments are what insurance companies call co-pays. Although they usually cover only a small portion of overall healthcare expenses, studies have nevertheless shown that even modest co-pays are enough to make many patients think twice about seeking out medical interventions.) Now the urologist was recommending 8 more scans, each costing $150; plus 8 follow-up appointments at $45 a pop, plus parking; plus the $450 cost of the kidney freezing procedure, . . . I could see this adding up to a decent chunk of change. But I had a second alternative – robotic, laparoscopic surgery. The urologist would make four incisions in my belly, and through a series of cameras and instruments, remove the mass. 'The advantage of surgery,' he told me 'is that we will remove the entire mass with clean margins. It will be gone, with only a 2% chance of recurrence over the next 5 years.' Because the procedure was more definitive, I would only need follow-up at one and five years. Two scans instead of eight, saving me close to $1200. But the surgery had a major downside because the urologist would cut open my belly, and I'd have to go six weeks without vigorous exercise while my tissues healed. I decided to get surgery, to avoid all the additional imaging tests, tests that would cost not only money but time. So far, my decision-making was a textbook example of how patients as consumers should make decisions. I learned about my treatment alternatives, their medical risks and benefits, as well as their financial costs, and made the choice that fit my values. It was only after returning to the urologist's office, two weeks after surgery, that I realized that this textbook was missing a chapter on the powerful role that physicians play in patients' medical decisions. After appropriate pleasantries, the urologist showed me the pathology report confirming that my mass was a renal cell cancer, a small one 'with clean margins,' meaning that he had cut out enough healthy tissue surrounding the tumor to be confident that no cancer cells remained. He then went over the follow-up plan, which I was surprised to discover had changed significantly since we last discussed it. 'Now the NCCN guidelines,' he told me, 'say that we don't need to do any follow-up imaging for someone with a tumor as small as yours.' The NCCN is the National Cancer Center Network, a professional organization whose clinical practice guidelines hold a lot of weight with physicians, because they represent a thorough assessment of the scientific evidence. 'But in your case,' he went on, 'you are so much younger and healthier than average, I would want to get a follow-up scan in three months, then annually after that for the next five years.' Huh? Before the surgery he told me that I would only need follow-up scans at 1 and 5 years, a factor that had influenced my choice of the procedure. Now he was telling me that I should receive six more scans. Surprised by this new course of action, I pushed back: 'How fast do renal cell cancers grow?' 'Usually about 0.6cm per year,' he answered. 'Then why do we need annual scans?' 'Recurrent tumors usually grow faster than primary cancers,' he answered, meaning that the 0.6cm figure he had given me five seconds earlier hadn't been an answer to the question I had asked. 'Look,' he said gently, 'we can have fewer scans if you want, but I hate to take the chance of missing a treatable recurrence in a young guy like you.' I was 51 at time, whereas the average age of someone diagnosed with renal cell cancer is 64. 'If you were older, with a bunch of competing health problems, I wouldn't be so worried. Most of my older patients with tumors like yours end up dying of other diseases, like heart problems, so getting frequent scans in them doesn't make sense.' Earlier in the visit, he had remarked upon how little fat he'd seen around my kidneys during the operation, and had commented on how quickly I was recovering from the procedure. My relative youth and healthiness were seemingly causing him to push for a more aggressive follow-up. He reiterated his recommendation that I receive an MRI in 3 months. I flashed a skeptical look in his direction, so he quickly elaborated: 'I just saw a patient at the three month follow-up today who already had a recurrence. Now he had a different tumor than yours,' (which seems like a pretty relevant fact to me), 'but I have seen too many bad cases in my career, patients whose tumors we discovered too late. Better safe than sorry.' Hard to argue against the logic of 'better safe than sorry.' But in my case that logic led down a path of potentially unnecessary tests and procedures, all of which cost money—not only to me, the patient forking over a co-pay, but also to the rest of the healthcare system. And of course, just two weeks earlier I had chosen to have my cancer removed surgically to avoid all those follow-up tests. In most consumer markets, individual consumers decide what products they want to buy at which prices. My experience with kidney cancer reminded me that in medical markets, physicians often play a large role in deciding what tests or procedures individual patients will receive, with little regard for the price of such services. In such settings, it defies logic to expect patients to make the kind of discerning choices that maximize market efficiency. We are undergoing a silent revolution in medical care in this country, with insurers and employers encouraging an increasing percent of Americans to enroll in high out-of-pocket health insurance plans. This move fhas been built on the assumption that giving patients a larger financial responsibility for the cost for their healthcare will turn them into more discerning healthcare consumers. My experience belies that assumption. Even savvy healthcare consumers – aka patients – will have a hard time reining in healthcare spending in the face of physicians preaching an ethic of better safe than sorry. In the end, the urologist and I compromised. I skipped the three month follow-up that he recommended but agreed to receive a scan at twelve months. I doubt that many patients would have been able to resist the recommendation for the earlier scan. Even I left the office that day wondering, worrying really, whether I had made a mistake, fretting about whether a small nexus of undetected cancer cells was silently rejoicing, knowing they had an extra window of time to draw strength from my blood. I had won a victory for medical markets and for common sense. But it left me wondering: would that victory cause me to lose the war?
BBC News
25-06-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Archie Goodburn: The Commonwealth Games swimmer who might not see 40
A year ago, a poolside phone call changed Archie Goodburn's Scottish 50m breaststroke record holder was dreaming of the Paris Olympics but his training had been hindered by some unusual factors. Seizures. Numbness on his left side. A feeling of had undergone tests and his scan results were due. When he emerged from his latest session in Edinburgh's Commonwealth pool, his phone showed a missed call from an unknown number. He called back. The news that followed was devastating."It was a pretty unlikely time to get a phone call," Goodburn says, speaking this month at the family home in the capital."I had actually spoke to my mum first to ask if she had heard anything. She said the doctors had been in touch but she couldn't get anything out of them."It's a moment I'll never forget, when I sat down at the edge of the pool - the pool where I've trained my whole life - to find out there's a brain tumour."Goodburn had brain cancer. He was 22 years old. It's the biggest cancer killer of people under the age of 40. Further investigation, including biopsy surgery, revealed three 'low grade' tumours. Inoperable and unable to be removed given how they'd spread through his brain."It was utter shock," he says. "Going from a healthy, young person to suddenly being told you have this ticking time-bomb in your brain that could, from one day to the next, become significantly worse and that there's nothing we can do to stop it." 'I'm lucky... I've got time to shout about this disease' It's particularly poignant when you consider this is an athlete in peak physical condition suddenly having to come to terms with their own mortality. "There are some potential advancements on the horizon and it's just whether or not these will come soon enough to help people like me who are facing the hard reality that they may not see their 40s."Imran Liaquat, Goodburn's neurosurgeon, says the prognosis can vary from three years to 20. Some live longer. Many don't. Accurate predictions are impossible and there is no cancer is - according to the Astro Brain Fund charity - the most fatal of all in terms of years lost, but investigations into it represent just 1% of the national spend on cancer research since record began. That, to Goodburn, is unacceptable. Undaunted by the battles to come, the young Scot is driven is continuing to train for this summer's World University Games and is looking forward to the Commonwealths in Glasgow next summer, but is also determined to help raise awareness of brain cancer and its impact on young painfully aware that many others have significantly less time than him."I'm in the fortunate position where I haven't been diagnosed with a glioblastoma," he explains. "I don't have 12 to 16 months. I may have considerably longer. "Often people don't get anywhere near as long when they're diagnosed with brain cancer. They're not going to want to spend their time raising awareness. They're going to want to live each day and making the most of every hour they have. "I realise I'm in a position with my sport and with my diagnosis that I have time to shout about this horrible disease that takes so many lives." As Goodburn offers an insight into what he, and many others, must face on a daily basis, a tear rolls down each cheek."I see the future in different ways on different days," he explains. "There are days when I wake up feeling positive and hoping things are going to be out there that can help. Other days, my eyes open and I remember I have brain cancer. There is an end-point to my life and it's much earlier than it should be."While he campaigns for more funding and better awareness, this extraordinary young man is drawing on the support of family and friends as he pursues his career as elite swimmer. He has a national title to defend this weekend and, despite everything, he'll be the strong favourite to retain the Scottish 50m breaststroke crown - live on the BBC Sport website, app & iPlayer - given he claimed silver at the British Championships in April. It's difficult for Goodburn to plan too far in advance, though, especially as he may now have to consider more aggressive forms of treatment such as radiotherapy and chemotherapy, options he's managed to postpone thus far. "I want to keep going as long as I can and be in Glasgow for the next Commonwealth Games," he says. "I can live a pretty normal life at the moment but that's not to say that's something that's going to last and it won't be something that lasts."Watching Goodburn train at The Pleasance, alongside sister and fellow Commonwealth hopeful Katie, is long-time coach Mat can't quite fathom how his protege is not only still training at a high level, but getting results too. Within a month of his first surgery, he won that Scottish title. And at the end of last year, he equalled his PB at the world short Goodburn isn't resting there. While he tackles head on all the difficult challenges life has landed him with, he's also allowing himself to dream."I'm dreaming of bettering myself," he says. "A diagnosis like this takes away the belief in yourself that you can be better than you were previously. Cancer is something that we look at as a downhill, slippery slope and in some ways it is. "But I dream of being better than the last time I tried to do something. That lights a wee fire in me when a lot of other things put the fire out. "Doing a personal best post-diagnosis is a huge dream of mine. Going on to represent Scotland at the Commonwealth Games would be massive. Fingers crossed I can look towards the next Olympics. "That depends on a lot of factors outside my control. I'm just going to keep going at this as long as I can and keep being Archie."If you have been affected by any of these issues, find support via the BBC Action Line
Yahoo
15-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
New research shows even dinosaurs got cancer
If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, BGR may receive an affiliate commission. Researchers may have found a smoking gun for human cancer research and it goes back almost 70 million years. The smoking gun in question is actually the fossilized remains of a small cow-sized dinosaur, which researchers say had a small tumor. Now, they've linked what appears to have been red blood cells to the tumor, showing that dinosaurs may have struggled with cancer millions of years ago, too. This discovery is more than just a sign that dinosaurs got cancer, though. It's also a sign that tissue may exist in other fossils, and that it may have been preserved more often than we previously believed. The methods that made this discovery possible are also relatively underused, the researchers report. Today's Top Deals Best deals: Tech, laptops, TVs, and more sales Best Ring Video Doorbell deals Memorial Day security camera deals: Reolink's unbeatable sale has prices from $29.98 From here, though, preservation of these samples is important, as understanding how the dinosaurs dealt with cancer could mean major leaps forward in our own human cancer researcher. Considering the strides researchers have made in new cancer treatments over the years, something like this could be a big help to future research. Luckily, proteins found in calcified tissue like bone is much more stable than traditional DNA. Plus, as we dig deeper into the genetics of the dinosaurs preserved in these fossils, we could hopefully uncover more about how cancer in dinosaurs affected the larger population. We know some animals don't get cancer, like elephants and whales. The tumor found on this particular dinosaur is a type still found in humans today, which means this type of tumor has been affecting animals on our planet for millions of years. Understanding how they dealt with it, without any kind of modern medicine, could hopefully unlock some additional opportunities for researchers. Of course, finding more dinosaur tissue to study isn't going to be easy. There's no way to tell when tissue will still be present in a fossil. But continued exploration could result in tissue and DNA that researchers can use in their goal to understand not only the past, but where we currently are in our fight against deadly diseases like cancer. More Top Deals Amazon gift card deals, offers & coupons 2025: Get $2,000+ free See the
Daily Mail
08-06-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE I was in so much pain I couldn't WALK but doctors simply sent me home with painkillers... and failed to diagnose condition that changed my life forever
When mother-of-one Alexandra Gerrard went to the accident and emergency department of Epsom Hospital, the pain was unimaginable. The 34-year-old was in agony - so much so that she couldn't even walk. But despite her suffering, NHS doctors told her she should take some painkillers and go home. What they missed was a condition that changed the course of her life forever. It all started when she was enjoying a well-deserved break in Miami, away from her job as a primary school worker. She was walking down the road when she tripped over a hole, injuring her back. She had already been experiencing a 'niggling' feeling in her foot and had been seeing a chiropractor for pain in her back. The fall made everything worse. When she returned home from the holiday, she slipped again - this time in the shower. Alexandra said the pain was 'excruciating' and she 'could barely get in the car'. But when she got to A&E, doctors didn't examine her. Instead, they gave her prescription for diazepam and told her to home. 'I just remember sitting in Epsom accident and emergency, with tears falling down my face because I couldn't actually get out of this wheelchair, with the prescription in my hand,' Alexandra said. What the doctors had missed was that a tumour was creeping towards her spinal cord. Doctors at a different hospital later told her she was in 'imminent risk of paralysis'. Far from simply having a bit of temporary pain that could be fixed with some painkillers, Alexandra had stage four cancer. There were even cancerous cells in her liver and lungs. Her first thought was of her eight-year-old son Thomas. She said: 'It was like time stopped, like time stood still, and everything becomes really surreal. 'It's like everything is moving around you and you are frozen in this strange place, where you can hear what the doctors are saying but it's like a film where your head is running at a hundred million miles an hour.' 'The life you lived before is just shattered in an instant and you are left thinking, 'Wow. I quite possibly only have a few years left to live. She added: 'I wasn't scared. I just felt a lot of sadness. 'I had to accept my lot and realise now I had to absolutely go and live the best available life that was available to me and my son,' she said. 'Every time I broached it he got so upset, and then he turned around and he said to me, ''Do you want to die or something?'' 'And I was like, you know what? He's completely right. I'm focusing too much on the dying part of this. 'I knew that I was sort of like the primary rock in his world. 'I just had to get back to him, and we have to go and live and make amazing memories.' She said the behaviour of Epsom's doctors was 'incredibly frustrating'. Speaking of the moment she was sent home by Epsom's A&E doctors, Alexandra said: 'They just they turned me away with a diazepam prescription. 'They didn't take an X-Ray. They knew my medical history but they didn't do anything. 'They were like, ''What do you want us to do? We've discharged you from the system now''' and I thought, how am I even going to get myself to a chemist?' Tragically for Alexandra, this is not the first time she has been diagnosed with a serious medical condition. When she was just a teenager she had a chronic autoimmune disorder called mysathenia gravis, which causes muscles to be weak, especially in the eyes, face and throat. She then went through six months of radiotherapy after an operation to remove an abnormal growth related to her condition. Finally she thought she could live her life the way she wanted. She moved to Canada and gave birth to her son. But tragedy soon struck once again, as she was forced to return to the UK following her father Nick's terminal cancer diagnosis. Nick, a sound engineer on ITV's This Morning, passed away from a rare type of appendix cancer in 2018. Three years later, in 2021, Alexandra went to the Royal Marsden Hospital when she noticed shooting pains in her chest following breastfeeding. Doctors said she had breast cancer. Determined to find a solution so she could continue to watch her toddler grow into a young boy, Alexandra battled the cancer undergoing a single mastectomy and further chemotherapy when the cancer returned in her scar lining. However, she won her fight with the disease in 2022. The single mother thought she could finally start to grow her family again with her new partner when this latest series of events took place. Now her focus is on making sure Thomas gets to spend as much time with her as possible before she becomes too unwell to travel. In their travels, she hopes to cultivate an ethos within him of caring about more than just material possessions. 'Its about the people you meet, the experiences, and with the right outlook life can look infinitely more beautiful,' she said. 'I really believe he chose me to be his mum and I feel so honoured that a soul would choose such a difficult path. 'I feel like he is saving my life.' Describing the 'cancer club' as the 'worst' experience with the 'best people', she added: 'I was so humbled by all of these incredible people who I felt were gifted from the angels. 'The reality is we live in a very unsafe world, but when you have cancer, you're so confronted with the fragility of life, and how uncertain every tomorrow is. 'We are often caught up in all of the distractions of life that we forget there are beautiful moments in the mundane. 'Don't wait until you're dying to start living.'
