A 38-year-old woman had a 132-pound ovarian tumor removed from her body, CNN reported.

The surgery took place in February at Danbury Hospital in Connecticut.

The tumor wasn't cancerous, but it grew rapidly — she gained 10 pounds a week over two months — and it was compressing the woman's digestive tract and some of her blood vessels.

Eight weeks after the surgery, the woman was back to her normal weight and her normal life.

Warning: This post contains graphic images.



A woman who suffered from a 132-pound ovarian tumor is on the mend after doctors successfully removed the mass.

On February 14, a team of 12 surgeons at Danbury Hospital in Connecticut removed the tumor in a five-hour procedure, CNN reported.

The woman has not been identified, but a May 3 press release from the Western Connecticut Health Network — the hospital's parent organization — offered additional details on her frightening condition.

Over the course of two months, the woman noticed rapid weight gain of about 10 pounds a week, the press release said. She went to see a gynecologist and got a CT scan, which revealed the burgeoning mass. She was then referred to gynecological oncologist Dr. Vaagn Andikyan, of the Western Connecticut Medical Group.

What the tumor looked like before surgery. Courtesy Danbury Hostpial

"I might expect to see a 25-pound ovarian tumor, but a 132-pound tumor is very rare," Andikyan said in a statement for the press release. "When I met the patient, she was extremely malnourished because the tumor was sitting on her digestive tract, and she used a wheelchair because of the tumor's weight."

Dr. Linus Chaung, another gynecological oncologist who was involved in the case, told CNN that the tumor wasn't cancerous, but that it still threatened the patient's life because it was compressing some of her blood vessels.

The doctors on the case opted to remove the tumor and reconstruct the woman's abdomen in a single procedure. In addition to the tumor, surgeons also removed her left ovary and the excess skin that grew to accommodate the mass, the press release said.

Doctors perform the tumor removal surgery. Courtesy Danbury Hospital

Andikyan told CNN that the woman had what's known as an ovarian mucinous tumor — a mass filled with a gelatin-like material created by tumor cells. This type of growth is benign in 80% of cases, according a 2013 case report cited by CNN. Another case report, published in 2010, noted that these tumors "tend to be huge in size." The press release added that pathologists at the hospital are currently conducting genetic tests on the mass try and figure out why it grew so quickly.

Despite the tumor's size, the woman made a successful recovery. A hospital representative confirmed to INSIDER that, when Andikyan saw the patient at her eight week post-operative appointment, she had returned to a healthy weight, her job, and her normal life.

The woman's abdomen after the tumor was removed. Courtesy Danbury Hospital

"We wanted to let people know, but we wanted to wait until the patient was really doing well in the postoperative period," Chuang told CNN. "And it's been three months, and she's really doing great."

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