For about 30 years, it was just a lump on the back of a 71-year-old man. Nothing to lose sleep over. Then, in the last two years, something changed: the mass began growing uncontrollably. By the time he arrived at the hospital in Lhasa, China, it stretched from his left shoulder to his lower back, was soft, had visible veins on its surface, and was pressing on the surrounding muscles. It measured 56 by 54 by 28 centimeters.
In the operating room, the surgeons made an incision, separated it layer by layer, and tied off the blood vessels supplying it until they had removed it whole, in one piece. When they put it on the scale, it weighed 22 pounds, about 10 kilos—the weight of three newborn babies. Despite its size, blood loss was just 100 milliliters.
The analysis showed that it was made up mostly of mature fat cells. The wound healed well, and nine months later, there was no sign of it returning. Even so, doctors warn that this type of tumor can recur in the same place and, in some cases, become more aggressive, so the patient will continue to be monitored with examinations and scans.
