un unusual ovarian cancer, considered inoperable due to its abnormal mass of 42 kg. Everything seemed absurd and unmanageable when Rachele, a 49-year-old mother, received the diagnosis. Yet, despite the expected difficulties, the specialists of the Mangiagalli Clinic of the Polyclinic of Milan they managed to remove it with a record intervention.
Here’s how it was found out, the symptoms, how many hours the surgery lasted, how the woman is now.
A tumor of 42 kilos: the symptoms
Rachele is 49 years old and works as a secretary in a large company outside Lombardy. She has a teenage daughter and a demanding job. In early 2022 she started gaining weight but she didn’t pay much attention to it. But when she went from 78 kg to over 120 kg in less than a year, it was clear that something was wrong. “When I started gaining weight – Rachele told the surgeons – I didn’t pay much attention to it, because I never had pain, until I started breathing and walking with great difficulty,” the woman explained to the doctors.
The diagnosis thanks to the gynecological examination
Thanks to a gynecological visit the cause emerged: it was a massive ovarian cancer, immediately deemed inoperable by two different hospitals. He asked the doctors of the Mangiagalli Clinic of the Milan Polyclinic for a third opinion: the diagnosis is confirmed, the intervention is very complex but it can be attempted. Four hours in the operating room, a few days of hospitalization and then a new life: Rachele has already returned to her hometown, where she will be able to continue the checks for her pathology, without that 42 kg mass which had greatly compromised the quality of her life.
The extraordinary intervention
The operation was performed by Fabio Amicarelli, Paola Colombo and Massimiliano Brambilla, surgeons of the Complex Structure of Gynecology directed by Paolo Vercellini, with the support of Giuseppe Sofi, head of Anesthesia and Intensive Care for Women and Children. “It was necessary remove the right ovary, which had grown uncontrollably due to the tumor – the specialists say. But also rebuild the abdominal wall, which had had to adapt to such a voluminous mass. The tumor, together with its appendages, weighed about 42 kg, a very rare occurrence. The patient coped very well with the surgery and was discharged in good healthcompatible with his pathology. The his discharge weight had returned to 78 kg».
“When I woke up after the operation I couldn’t believe it, I was very happy and very grateful. I was given a chance to continue living next to my daughter, and to see her grow up», commented Rachele.
Ovarian cancer, among the most insidious
Very it is often asymptomatic and the diagnosis is generally occasional. I am about 30 thousand Italian women who are being treated for ovarian cancer, two small organs that are important not only for reproduction but also because they secrete essential hormones (estrogen and progesterone). The ovarian one is an insidious type of cancer, because in the early stages does not present particular symptoms and even in the more advanced stages these are often non-specific.
Ovarian cancer numbers
There are currently no screening tests: therefore the diagnosis often takes place when the disease is already in an advanced stage and the possibilities of treatment are less. Ovarian cancer matters 5,000 new cases every year in Italyrepresents about 30% of all malignant tumors of the female genital system and ranks tenth among all cancers in women.
Prevention and risks
Some factors lower the risk of contracting it: the use of oral contraceptivesthe pregnancies and thebreastfeedingthe surgical removal of tubes and ovaries. Others increase your risk, such as having a high body mass indexthe late menopause and the use of one postmenopausal hormone replacement therapy not adequately supervised by the specialist.
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