Liver tumour surgery saves cancer patient

KOLKATA: A huge malignant abdominal tumour was removed by doctors at a city hospital along with a portion of the liver to revive a third stage cancer patient.
The tumour, termed retroperitoneal tumour in medical parlance, originated outside the liver and posed a challenge to the surgeons since it had infiltrated several vital organs, including the kidney, adrenal gland and duodenum.A special surgical instrument was used to scoop out a significant portion of the liver to free it of the cancerous cells.
Two weeks after the surgery, the patient, a 55-year-old from Baranagar, has resumed normal activities. Before the operation, he had been bedridden for weeks. He also had acute abdominal pain. “He was extremely weak and was steadily deteriorating. We knew we had to act fast and the first target was to remove the tumour. But it proved more difficult than it had seemed, for the malignancy had spread to the adjoining organs. Also, we realized that a part of the liver will have to be extracted as well,” said Subhankar Deb, head of surgical oncology at AMRI Dhakuria where the surgery was done.
The surgical team led by Deb considered the options. Eventually, they had to decide on removing a part of the liver. But it couldn’t be done through conventional surgery. “We needed a specialized surgical instrument called CUSA to remove the affected part of the liver. It was the most critical part of the surgery since the liver is a vascular structure and starts bleeding easily. In this case, we had to remove a substantial part of the organ which could have been risky,” explained Deb. AMRI Dhakuria is one of the two hospitals in the city that has the equipment.
Once that was done, the surgical team had to shift focus to the removal of the malignant part of the tumour in the adjoining organs. “We did RO resection, which means no residue being left. The extraction was done successfully,” said Deb.
The surgery, claimed Deb, cost almost one-fourth of what it would have in any other metro. “We did it for a shade above Rs 2 lakh. Unfortunately, patients are often under the impression that oncological procedures are better and cheaper elsewhere. Kolkata, in fact, is just as good in many respects,” said Deb.