People live with tumors in their bodies for years, until they realize something is amiss with their health. A 46-year-old woman in Ireland, who literally carried a heavy burden on her back, only recently went to a clinic in Dublin to check out a large breast-shaped tumor she's had for 10 years. Upon an MRI scan, doctors found the protruding soft tissue was not sarcoma, but a benign tumor made up of fat cells, known as lipoma.

“On examination, there was a large pedunculated mass located on her right mid-lower back,” wrote the researchers in the case report published in the British Medical Journal. “It was firm to the touch and non-tender. She had no other skin lesion and there were no palpable nodes. The rest of the examination was normal.”

The tumor is approximately 7.5 inches in length and 2.6 inches wide and located on her right, mid-lower back. Although its size would suggest otherwise, the doctors were able to confirm this as a case of lipoma. These fatty tumors are small in size and have a soft consistency. They are accumulations of fat set off from the tissue around them by a small membrane, according to the Mayo Clinic. However, an MRI and biopsy should be considered in firm, painless, enlarging fatty lesions to distinguish between lipomas versus liposarcomas.

The woman, who is a heavy smoker with a history of chronic obstructive airway disease, admits she only started to see an increase in size in the past three years. No correlation between smoking and lipoma has been found, though there are some cases where tumor size increases as the person’s body mass index increases.

Now doctors have placed her on the waiting list to have the growth removed with surgery.

Click on “View Slideshow” to see the various angles of this rare case of lipoma.

Back with lipoma
Doctors conduct a clinical review on a woman who has been living with a “breast-shaped” tumor on her back for a decade. BMJ