The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Doctors excise man's rare 34-pund tumor
Patient recovering after extraordinary removal of 29-inch mass.
‘It’s just a miracle I’m alive. I mean, there’s no other way I can put it.’ Maurice “Sonny” Swanson, 67
Surgeons at a Chattanooga hospital successfully removed a rare 34-pound tumor measuring 29 inches long from a man who said he’s feeling much better now without the mass, which had grown undetected within his abdomen for what was likely several years.
Maurice “Sonny” Swanson of Mcdonald, Tennessee, said he’s always been a large person, but since surgeons removed the tumor and affected tissues in September, he’s gone from weighing 403 pounds to 299 pounds.
“It’s just a miracle I’m alive,” 67-year-old Swanson said via phone Friday. “I mean, there’s no other way I can put it.”
In May, providers discovered a mass in the tissue that surrounded Swanson’s kidney behind his intestines during a CT scan related to kidney stones. Further testing revealed a rare form of cancer, a liposarcoma, which is an overgrowth of fat.
“It was by accident, in a way, they found it,” Swanson said, adding that he never noticed any symptoms other than about 50 pounds of unexplained weight gain over the past two years and a slight bulge on his left side.
Dr. Justin Wilkes, a surgical oncologist at CHI Memorial who operated on Swanson, said that type of tumor can be difficult to see until it reaches a certain size due to the amount of fat in the abdomen. They’re also dangerous and need to be removed because they can spread to other areas of the body and eventually cause symptoms, such as difficulty eating.
Aside from being a rare cancer in itself, Swanson’s liposarcoma far exceeded the typical size and was bigger than any tumor his doctors at CHI Memorial had ever seen. Studies show liposarcomas in the abdomen are on average about 20-25 centimeters, with the largest ones reaching 60 centimeters. Swanson’s was 73 centimeters long, according to records from CHI Memorial hospital.
In addition to the tumor, surgeons needed to take out his left kidney, spleen, part of his colon, left adrenal gland and the tail of his pancreas in order to remove all the cancerous tissue. Swanson also has some other chronic conditions, including heart disease, that made the surgery more complex.
Liposarcoma removal usually takes place at larger, more specialized medical centers, but because Wilkes had completed a two-year fellowship at one of those centers, he felt like he could perform the surgery in Chattanooga.
“I told him, ‘I’m happy to take care of this here. I was trained to do it, but I definitely need to let you know that the recommendation is you should consider going somewhere bigger that takes care of these more frequently, because they’re rare,’” Wilkes said.
Swanson said he decided to stay local because he was familiar with the hospital and had faith in the providers’ ability.
“I was at peace with whatever was fixing to happen, and the good Lord just got me through it,” he said.
Before undergoing surgery, Swanson received radiation to reduce the chance the tumor would grow back. Dr. TruKhang Dinh from Tennessee Oncology performed the radiation therapy.
Because the tumor was so large, Dinh said in a phone interview, there were areas where even the best surgeons could accidentally leave “crumbs” of microscopic tumor cells.
“The idea of radiation is to sterilize the surgical margin to make sure nothing grows back because even one tumor cell left behind will over time grow into a tumor,” he said.
It’s been nearly five months since Swanson’s surgery, which lasted around four hours. Wilkes said many clinicians assisted, including his partner Dr. Rishabh Shah and urologist Dr. Jeffrey Mullins, so that they could minimize the time Swanson was under the knife given his other health conditions.
Swanson spent about 10 days in the hospital post-surgery before being transferred to a nursing home for rehab. He got home the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.
“He did remarkably well,” Wilkes said. “We sent him to the ICU for a couple of nights.
He might have required one blood transfusion, but there was never any major bleeding during the case.”
At his three-month checkup in December, Swanson’s cancer was at bay and he was healing better than expected. He’ll go back in March for another checkup.
“All and all from what I’ve been through, I’m well pleased so far with the outcome of everything,” Swanson said.
In the years leading up to the surgery, he said, he was taking three to four medications daily to control his high blood pressure. Now, his blood pressure is on the low end as his body continues to heal from the surgery.
still have good days and bad days. But overall, I’m slowly getting better,” he said. “Dr. Wilkes and anybody that’s seen me can’t hardly believe how well my recovery has gone.”
Swanson said he attributes part of his success to being willing to push himself to get better.
“I’m just the type of person that likes to stay moving, and I know that’s what’s helped me get through this,” he said.