Massive, Four-Pound Brain Tumor May Be Largest Ever Removed, Surgeons Say

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Indian doctor Ramanuj Kabra points to brain scans of Santlal Pal, 31, at the BYL Nair hospital in Mumbai on February 22, 2018. INDRANIL MUKHERJEE/AFP/Getty Images

Surgeons who removed a brain tumor that weighed nearly four pounds from the head of a 31-year-old shopkeeper named Santlal Pai on February 14 believe it may be the largest ever recorded, the BBC reported. The type and grade of tumor they removed wasn't disclosed, nor was it clear whether it was cancerous or benign. It had been growing in the man's head for three years.

"It was an extremely daunting and complex surgery," neurosurgeon Dr. Trimurti Nadkarni told Agence France-Presse.

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Indian surgeons who removed a massive brain tumor said on February 22 it could be the heaviest ever recorded. INDRANIL MUKHERJEE/AFP/Getty Images

Just because a tumor may be benign doesn't mean it's not dangerous. A benign brain tumor can put pressure on the brain or other structures like drainage channels. A tumor blocking those channels was previously thought to be the largest brain tumor to be surgically removed when it was announced in 2008, ABC reported. Doctors in New Delhi removed a meningioma the size of two baseballs from a woman's brain. (Meningiomas are a common, non-cancerous brain tumor.)

About 80 percent of the brain tumors found in Americans are benign, according to the National Brain Tumor Society. More than 23,000 Americans are diagnosed with brain cancer each year, according to the National Cancer Institute.

Non-cancerous and cancerous tumors are all graded on the same scale set by the World Health Organization.

Tumors can also be in the brain without being "brain tumors." Primary brain tumors are ones that come from the brain tissue itself, but most often tumors in the brain have started somewhere else and are called metastatic tumors.

Regardless of the type, brain tumors can be graded on a scale from Grade I to Grade IV based on how fast they grow and whether the cells look normal.

Nair Hospital, where the tumor was removed, appears to be the same Mumbai hospital where a 32-year-old man died after being drawn into an MRI machine by the machine's magnetic field.

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About the writer


Kate Sheridan is a science writer. She's previously written for STAT, Hakai Magazine, the Montreal Gazette, and other digital and ... Read more

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