Doctors plan to remove basketball-sized tumor from the face of a boy

It started as a pimple: Doctors want to remove five-kilogram tumor from a boy's face

A teenager from Cuba has a huge tumor on his face. Now doctors in the US want to free the boy from the approximately five-pound growth. The tumor the size of a basketball could stifle him otherwise.

The tumor grew within a few months

In the US, doctors want to remove a basketball-sized tumor from a 14-year-old boy from Cuba. The tumor began about two years ago, when the boy reached puberty, as a kind of pimple on the left side of his nose. This grew within a few months to a fleshy mass. Now the proliferation is about ten pounds heavy. Although the tumor is benign or non-cancerous, its weight could break the boy's cervical spine and suffocate it, reports the Miami Herald newspaper..

Doctors from the USA want to remove a basketball-sized tumor from a 14-year-old boy from Cuba. Otherwise the tumor could suffocate him. (Image: AntonioDiaz / fotolia.com)

Tumor is life-threatening due to its weight

According to the newspaper report, 14-year-old Emanuel Z. is malnourished because it's difficult for him to eat and swallow. Soon he will be freed from his tumor.

Dr. Robert Marx of the University of Miami Health System and a surgeon team will operate him.

"Its weight makes it life threatening," said Marx at a press conference. "If nothing is done," said the physician, "it will cause a fracture of his neck."

Marx said that he heard of Emanuel's case for the first time at a medical conference where a group of missionaries presented X-rays and photos of the boy.

"Nobody knew what it was," says Marx.

Boy suffers from rare disease

But Marx recognized what the boy was suffering from, as he had previously operated on patients with large facial tumors, including Marlie Casseus, a Haitian woman who had been removed from her face more than a decade ago by a 16-pound tumor.

Emanuel was born with a rare condition known as fibrous dysplasia, in which his body developed scar-like tissue rather than bone. The disease often causes fractures and malformations of the arms, legs and skull.

His mother, Noel, said that her boy's illness was diagnosed at the age of two, but doctors in Cuba would not risk performing surgery on Emanuel's facial tumor.

Patient will be able to breathe better and see again

In about two weeks, the operation will now take place at Jackson's Holtz Children's Hospital in Miami. The complex operation is expected to take about twelve hours. The nose of the boy should be reconstructed so that he can breathe easily.

As Marx explained, the surgical team must be very careful when removing the tumor so that it does not return.

After that, Emanuel will need more surgery to reconstruct his cheek, jaw and other facial features and implant artificial teeth.

The first thing the young patient will notice after tumor removal is that his vision improves, the doctor explained. The boy's eyes work well, according to Marx, but the tumor has blocked much of his view.

"He will also be able to breathe much better," said Marx. And: "He will eat much better."

Removal of gigantic tumors

For years, the removal of gigantic tumors has been repeatedly reported. For example, in 2015, a man from Madagascar had an eight kilogram tumor removed from his face.

And in 2013, a 17-kilogram ovarian tumor was removed from a female patient at the gynecological clinic in Lübbecke-Rahden (North Rhine-Westphalia).

The world's largest surgically removed tumor weighed 90 kilograms. He was removed from an international medical team in early 2012 for over 13 hours with a man from Vietnam. (Ad)