Mumbai, Dec 6

In a rare case, a 13-year-old girl underwent successful surgery at a hospital here to extricate a huge cancerous abdominal tumour, an official said Friday.

The patient, identified as RS, was detected with a massive 1.50 kg tumour when she recently had her first menses, Niranjan Chavan of the obstetrics and gynaecology department at Sion's Lokmanya Tilak Memorial Hospital, said.

"She was in great pain when she was admitted Nov 27. We conducted various tests to detect the massive malignant ovarian tumour in her abdomen, protruding four inches above the navel," Chavan told IANS.

It turned out to be a rarest of rare Germ Cell Ovarian cancer tumour, which is said to be the first in the country in a girl below the age of 16, Chavan said.

"Ultrasonography showed a solid heterogeneous, highly vascular intra abdominal mass, a hormone secreting tumour, and her condition was preceded by fever for a week," Chavan said.

After counselling her alarmed parents, RS finally underwent successful surgery, he said.

"Two days after the surgery, she is fine. We have also managed to save her right ovary and the fallopian tubes, meaning she will be in a position to conceive and lead a normal married life," Chavan said.

Departmental head Y. S. Nandanwar said that this is among the rarest of rare cases in the country, as Germ Cell tumours are annually diagnosed in about 900 children.

"They account for 16 percent of all cancers diagnosed in adolescents between ages of 15-19 and nearly four percent of cancers diagnosed in children below 15 years of age," Nandanwar said.

"As per our knowledge, this is the rare case of malignant Germ Cell tumour reported in India in a patient aged 13 years," LTMC Hospital Dean Avinash Supe said.

Chavan said that next would be the three-six cycles of chemotherapy and the patient will fully recover since the tumour was detected at a very early stage.

By:IANS