AHMEDABAD: Imagine a heavy jelly bag weighing nearly 18kg wrapped around your abdomen, crushing your stomach, liver, bladder and innards. A 75-year-old Ethiopian man suffering this rare form of tumor underwent a marathon surgery to shed the life-threatening baggage!Operating onco-surgeon Dr Nitin Singhal said that the tumor occurs only in one in a million and is very difficult to treat. The `Pseudomyxoma Peritonei' tumor which is also called `jelly bag tumor' in common parlance due to the fluid and tissue mush encompassed in a bag-like structure does not respond to chemotherapy and radiotherapy.“The elderly man suffered symptoms like extreme nausea and loss of appetite. He just could not eat anything. His urination was also compromised, he said.“Diagnostic tests revealed that he suffered from rare tumor which was spread over his organs like a thick jelly carpet. It covered all the space in the abdomen area. Surgically, it is a difficult case as removing this bag runs the risk of injuring key organs like liver, urinary bladder and intestines which it is pressing,” said Dr Singhal.Doctors said that during the marathon surgery which lasted 14.5 hours, 15 litres of fluid was drained from his body and 3kg of jelly like mass removed.While the surgery is followed by a treatment of giving chemotherapy wash for 90 minutes to kill microscopic cancer cells, the step was avoided in the Ethiopian considering his age.Doctors said that the patient who also suffers from diabetes, hypertension and arthritis has reported good recovery and has been discharged.“Surgeries like this would open a new vista to understand the complexities of new cancers and its possible course of treatment. If not treated, there are surely chances of tumor to be spreading in other parts of the body and furthering the complications,” said Dr Singhal.

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