AIIMS: Dr Mukurdipi Ray Removes 19.9 kg Tumour From Colon Cancer Patient

New Delhi: AIIMS Delhi, Surgical Oncologist, Doctor Mukurdipi Ray in a successful surgery removed a whopping 19.9 kg tumour from a 43-year-old colon cancer patient, giving her a new lease of life.

Ms Munmun, a 43-year-old female from Durgapur, West Bengal, presented with abdominal distension. She had a history of unilateral salpingo-oophorectomy 25 years prior. She was diagnosed with carcinoma colon featuring pelvic predominance and widespread abdominal dissemination.

"Mukurdipi Ray (Doctor), Surgical Oncologist at AIIMS Delhi, performed successful cytoreductive surgery achieving complete resection and removing 19.9 kg of tumor burden with multi organ resections, completion Surgery plus HIPEC done to complete the Oncosurgical management," said AIIMS.

Dr Ray told reporters that the disease was considered inoperable based on CT and PET-CT scans. The scans showed a massive abdominal tumor with no separately identifiable organs. The entire abdomen was occupied by a tumour mass.

As the patient was unlikely to tolerate the massive procedure in a single surgery, Dr Ray decided to do the surgery in two stages.

“In the first stage, I removed the bulk of the tumour. I performed extensive resection, removing ascending colon, part of ileum, two-thirds of transverse colon, sigmoid colon, omentum, uterus, and bilateral fallopian tubes, parts of liver and liver capsule, and peritoneum,” the doctor said.

“Major vessels such as the IVC were at risk due to inflammation and infiltration, making surgery extremely challenging,” he said, adding that during this stage, the patient became hemodynamically unstable due to blood loss and other complications. After a gap of two days, the second stage of the surgery was performed, where HIPEC was administered to the patient. While chemotherapy is usually given intravenously, in the Hyperthermic Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy -- the heated chemotherapy (41–43 degrees Celsius) is delivered directly into the abdominal cavity after complete tumour removal. “Once we were satisfied that all visible tumours were removed, HIPEC was administered for one and a half hours to eliminate microscopic disease that cannot be seen with the naked eye,” Dr Ray said. “Postoperatively, the abdomen appeared completely free of visible tumor. The liver and intestines were clearly visible and uninvolved,” he added.

Dr Ray explained that colon cancer, once considered a terminal disease, is still curable in some cases. “Metastatic colon cancer should not be declared untreatable without evaluation at a high-volume center with expert surgeons,” he added.