An Indian woman, who lived with a football-sized tumor on her face for 25 years, has gotten a new lease on life.
Doctors removed the massive parotid tumor from the side of Lakhmani Devi's face, which weighed more than 4 pounds, Agence-France Presse reported Monday.
"It was made of solid tissue and was the largest I have come across in all the medical books," K.K. Handa, the operating surgeon at New Delhi's All India Institute of Medical Sciences, told AFP on Monday.
"The patient was told by doctors in her village that she would die if it was removed so she coped with it for decades.”
Doctors said the 67-year-old is eating well and should make a full recovery.
Salivary gland tumors are abnormal cells growing in the ducts that drain the salivary glands. The most common type is a slow-growing tumor of the parotid gland, according to the National Institutues of Health. This is usually a noncancerous growth that gradually increases the size of the gland. However, some of these tumors can be cancerous (malignant), the NIH said on its Web site.
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