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Dubai: Tumour larger than golf ball removed from man’s eye

Dubai - Cancerous tumour had spread from the nasal passage to the eyes and up to the brain.

Doctors in Dubai have removed a humongous rare tumour – bigger than the size of a golf ball - from behind the eye of a 50-year-old cement factory worker.

By the time the patient was examined by doctors at the Canadian Specialist Hospital (CSH), the cancerous tumour — Adenocarcinome — had spread extensively, pushing itself up from the nasal passage to the eyes and up to the brain.

Dr Haitham Morsi, specialist ENT- rhinologist and skull base surgeon at CSH, said the patient’s condition could have turned critical if there was even a slight delay in the surgery as his eye was almost bulging out of its socket, and the man was coughing blood, couldn’t see or even smell properly, and was having breathing issues when he arrived at the hospital.

The Filipino patient, who worked at a cement factory, had been suffering from the symptoms from almost a year, but his problems aggravated around three months back with the symptoms becoming severe as the tumour spread to his brain. He was turned down by several hospitals as the case needed a super-specialist and he was asked to get radio-and chemotherapy done.

Dr Morsi said: “This was a dangerous situation as he had a big mass that was malignant and this required us to completely remove it as soon as possible to prevent it from spreading. Since we work in a multidisciplinary team at CSH, our oncologist advised us that there was no role for chemotherapy now since the tumour was very large. It was important to go for removal of the tumour first and chemotherapy could be done later to see if there was any residual of the tumour,”

Dr Morsi, along with Dr Saied Alhabash, another super specialist in rhinology and skull base surgery, performed the endoscopic (minimally invasive) procedure, where they removed the tumour from the patient’s nasal opening in around four hours.

The malignant tumour was removed without damaging the patient’s brain or eye and he was discharged the following day. “Although it was a big tumour, we did not make any cuts since it was done endoscopically. After the procedure, the shape of the nose is also normal, the eye has gone back to normal and the patient is looking and feeling good,” said Dr Morsi.

“We have now scheduled him for chemo-and radiotherapy to ensure that even if there are any microscopic particles of the tumour left, they can be done away by therapies. The good part is that when the patient takes chemotherapy and radiotherapy after a complete removal surgery, the dosage of the medication is very small and duration of the treatment is also short. I am glad that his eye now looks normal, he can breathe comfortably and soon his sense of smell will also return,” he said.

Dr Morsi said that one should not ignore signs given out by one’s body. “The Filipino patient had been having severe headaches, had lost sense of smell due to nasal obstruction, and his eye was bulging out since it was pushed by the tumour. These are all symptoms and one should seek immediate medical advice.”

saman@khaleejtimes.com