Bhubaneswar: A 38-year-old woman from Boudh district, suffering from a complex type of cancer known as Retroperitoneal Liposarcoma, who underwent surgery for the fifth time at the Institute of Medical Sciences and SUM Hospital here recently, has recovered fully.
Retroperitoneal Liposarcoma is known to be notoriously recurrent and cannot be treated with chemo or radiation therapy and the only way to deal with the disease is through surgery, Prof. (Dr.) Prakash Kumar Sahoo, Professor of Surgery in the hospital, said.
The patient has undergone treatment in IMS and SUM Hospital intermittently since 2012 where all her five surgeries were done, he said.
She had come to the hospital for the first time in August 2012 with a large abdominal swelling and pain and a CT scan revealed that she was having a huge tumour. A tumour weighing 15 kg was removed from her abdomen through surgery and a subsequent biopsy confirmed it as a case of Retroperitoneal Liposarcoma, Prof. (Dr.) Sahoo said.
The patient returned to the hospital after four years in 2016 with the same complaints and a 10.5 kg tumour was removed. As the tumour was adhering to the uterus, the surgical team had to remove the uterus and ovaries as well.
She came for treatment for the third time in 2020 when a tumour weighing 7.5 kg had to be removed. The patient returned again in 2022 and underwent surgery for removal of another tumour weighing 5 kg, Prof. (Dr.) Sahoo, who led the surgical team, said.
“She came again after one year last month and another operation had to be done. This time, however, multiple tumours, though relatively smaller compared to the previous occasions, were found which were strewn around different places of the abdominal cavity,” he said adding the patient was kept in ICU for three days and was now ready to be discharged.
Besides Prof. (Dr.) Sahoo, the other members of the team included Dr. Suman Sourav Rout, Dr. Sagar and Dr. Shlok. The anaesthesia team comprised Prof. (Dr.) Saswat Patnaik, Prof. Soumya Samal and Dr. Sibasis Das besides the OT staff members Sangram Behera, Sagarika and Manasi.
Prof. (Dr.) Satya Mohapatra of the Department of Radiology was instrumental in providing the accurate diagnosis of the medical condition of the patient through CT scan each time before surgery while the pathology team headed by Prof. (Dr.) Debahuti Mohapatra confirmed it as Retroperitoneal Liposarcoma after studying the biopsy report, Prof. (Dr.) Sahoo said.
Girija Mohan Dani, the husband of the patient, thanked the hospital management and the medical team for successfully conducting the surgery every time at a minimal cost.
Prof. (Dr.) Sahoo said the patient was found to be very brave and mentally strong. “We found her to be an optimistic person and very positive about life,” he said.
