The news about the 35-pound tumor removed from a peruvian woman’s abdomen are taking over the internet.

The cancerous tumor started growing when Irianita Rojas Rasma was 8 years old, in her abdomen. After, 14 years later, the 35-pound mass has been removed from the Peruvian woman’s stomach. The tumor grew so large that she looked as if she were pregnant.

The term neoplasm refers to an abnormal growth of tissue caused by the rapid division of cells that have undergone some form of mutation.

The body is made up of trillions of cells that grow, divide, and die in an orderly fashion. This process is a tightly regulated one that is controlled by the DNA machinery within the cell. When a person is growing up, the cells of the body rapidly divide, but once adulthood is reached, cells generally only divide to replace worn-out, dying cells or to repair injured cells.

Neoplasia describes when these cells proliferate in an abnormal manner that is not coordinated with the surrounding tissue. These rogue cells cannot be controlled in the way that normal cells can because they do not die when they should and they divide more quickly.

As this excessive growth persists, a lump or tumor that has no purpose or function in the body is eventually formed. This is referred to as a neoplasm and it may be non-cancerous (benign), pre-cancerous (pre-malignant) or cancerous (malignant).

Now, it took surgeons at the Archbishop Loayza National Hospital three hours to remove the woman’s tumor in what the hospital described as a ‘medical feat.’ Dr. Luis Garcia Bernal, the hospital director, stated that the patient will stay there for observation.

The isolated Amazonian town, Tamshiyacu, provided little chance of the tumor being removed. Then, Peruvian health minister Anibal Velasquez visited the town, heard Rojas’s story and immediately ordered his staff bring the woman to the capital, Lima, for surgery. Rojas was airlifted to Arzobispo Loayza Hospital, where she underwent the three-hour operation.

Irianita is recovering and can be released, but she will stay in Lima for a few more days to so that we can practice additional exams to define the treatment she should follow when she returns to Loreto.

Garcia Bernal declared on Wednesday.

Rojas lives in Tamshiyacu, a remote town in the Peruvian jungle in the northernmost province of Loreto in the Amazon region bordering Brazil.

She says she had already resigned herself to living with the tumor until a fateful, coincidental meeting with Anibal Velasquez Valdivia, Peru’s health minister. Velasquez was traveling in the region this month to monitor the progress of the construction of a health center in Tamshiyacu when Rojas’ case came to his attention.

Officials say Velasquez immediately gave orders to have Rojas transported to Lima to be treated at Archbishop Loayza National Hospital, which belongs to the Peruvian Health Ministry. Rojas and her mother, Karina Rasma, were flown to the capital on February 16. Medical examinations leading to the surgery began right away.

According to Dr. Garcia Bernal, Rojas has a good outlook. Even though they were dealing with a malignant tumor, he said, it was considered low intensity, meaning no chemotherapy will be needed. Ninety percent of patients with this prognosis recover fully, the doctor said.

Health officials said Rojas’ growing tumor caused her constant pain that prevented a normal life. She had dropped out of school and had difficulty walking and even breathing.

Speaking after the successful surgery, the patient’s mother became emotional, according to a statement issued by the Health Ministry. ‘Thanks for giving my daughter a new life,’ Rasma told the doctors.

Image Source: dailymail.co.uk.