This woman lived with a breast-shaped lump on her back for 10 years

(BMJ)

pTen years after first noticing a lump, a woman in Dublin has had a growth the size of a large breast removed from her back./p pDoctors said they were unsure why the 46-year-old did not come to see them sooner, particularly as the growth grew rapidly over the past three years./ppHowever, she arrived at a clinic in Dublin to have it examined, and is now on a waiting list to have it removed./ppThe unnamed woman may have been afraid it was cancerous. This was the main worry of doctors when they saw the 19 cm growth , which felt firm but not tender, a href=http://casereports.bmj.com/content/2015/bcr-2015-212030.full?sid=9fd338ca-e7a3-4430-a2c8-9b8dbd93addb target=_blankaccording to the BMJ case report/a./ppHowever, their fears it was a soft tissue cancer known as sarcoma were assuaged when an MRI scan showed it to be a giant lipoma - or a benign tumour made of fat cells./ppThe woman was a heavy smoker, with a history of chronic obstructive airway disease, according to the report./ppIt said: Lipomas such as these are usually painless, soft and small at about 1 cm, but they can be giant lipomas greater than 10 cm in size./ppThis growth was of such an impressive size, and belong to an order which are usually removed, a href=http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3228099/The-woman-breast-46-year-old-huge-tumour-removed-gr target=_blanka doctor told the emDaily Mail/em/a./ppCo-author of the report, Dr Tunde Abdulsalam, said it was one of the biggest lipomas he had ever seen./pp‘It is unusual to let it grow that big. Most patients would have it removed sooner for cosmetic reasons, he told the emDaily Mail/em./p