--- title: A Connecticut Woman Had a 132-Pound Ovarian Tumor Removed description: A Connecticut woman had a 132-pound ovarian tumor removed at Danbury Hospital. The benign tumor took up her entire abdomen. canonical: https://time.com/5265674/ovarian-tumor-danbury-hospital/ author: Jamie Ducharme article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-05-04T16:01:26.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:57:52.109Z article:section: Health og:title: A Connecticut Woman Had a 132-Pound Ovarian Tumor Removed og:description: It was one of the largest tumors of its kind og:url: https://time.com/5265674/ovarian-tumor-danbury-hospital/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: A Connecticut Woman Had a 132-Pound Ovarian Tumor Removed twitter:description: It was one of the largest tumors of its kind twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # A Connecticut Woman Had a 132-Pound Ovarian Tumor Removed > Sponsored content. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators.  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. May 4, 2018 4:01 PM UTC  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. May 4, 2018 4:01 PM UTC Dr. Vaagn Andikyan, a gynecologic oncologist at Connecticut’s Danbury Hospital, had never seen anything like it. A 38-year-old woman had been referred to Andikyan after rapid weight gain — nearly 10 pounds a week over the course of two months — prompted her to seek medical attention. By the time she got to the hospital, a three-foot-wide, 132-pound ovarian tumor was taking up her entire abdomen. The tumor wasn’t cancerous, but it had caused her legs to swell so much that she couldn’t walk, leaving her wheelchair-bound. She was severely malnourished because of its position over her digestive tract, and her intestines had been pushed into her chest. She was desperate for relief. “I was very cautious. Nobody wants their patient to have a negative outcome,” Andikyan says. “What gave me a second wind was that we wanted to help the patient. When you have this internal feeling that you’re helping, positive thinking helps you to achieve your goal.”  Photo via Danbury Hospital In the end, a team of almost 25 Danbury clinicians — including surgeons, cardiologists, gynecologists, physician’s assistants, anesthesiologists, nurses, operating room technicians and office staff — worked together to develop a treatment plan. On Valentine’s Day 2018, doctors carried out a five-hour surgery, which involved removing the tumor and reconstructing the patient’s abdomen all in the same procedure. The outcome, Andikyan says, surpassed anyone’s hopes. Not only was the tumor removal successful, but the team was also able to spare her uterus, one ovary and most of her fallopian tubes, preventing early menopause and preserving her ability to get pregnant. Had they waited even a week or two longer, Andikyan says, the patient might not have made it. Because the tumor was benign — as is common with very large masses — the patient is not expected to have any lingering health issues, Andikyan says. “She’s totally fine. She should be back to her baseline,” Andikyan says. “I’m very proud of our hospital.” The tumor is among the largest ever recorded. Though a few ovarian tumors weighing more than 300 pounds [have been reported in the past](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/pop%5Fups/05/health%5Fguinness%5Fmedical%5Frecord%5Fbreakers/html/7.stm), most are significantly smaller. A 50-pound tumor, Andikyan says, would typically be considered very large, making a 132-pound lesion exceedingly rare. “No one knows, really, why certain benign tumors get so big,” Andikyan says, adding that Danbury’s laboratories are conducting genetic tests on the tumor. “Maybe in the future we’ll know why these benign tumors get so big, so fast.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5265674/ovarian-tumor-danbury-hospital/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5265674/ovarian-tumor-danbury-hospital/"},"headline":"A Connecticut Woman Had a 132-Pound Ovarian Tumor Removed","datePublished":"2018-05-04T16:01:26.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:57:52.109Z","description":"It was one of the largest tumors of its kind","url":"https://time.com/5265674/ovarian-tumor-danbury-hospital/","keywords":["medicine","onetime","healthytime"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jamie Ducharme","jobTitle":"Ducharme is a contributor to TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/medicine/","name":"medicine"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5265674/ovarian-tumor-danbury-hospital/","name":"A Connecticut Woman Had a 132-Pound Ovarian Tumor Removed"}}]}] ```