The battle for Elena’s health: liposarcoma is neutralized!

In 2016, Elena’s life from the Moscow region turned to a doctor with complaints of severe pain. The therapist at the reception felt a large seal in the side, said that the tumor was hard as a brick and referred her to an oncologist. The oncologist confirmed all his fears and after numerous diagnostic studies, the diagnosis was announced: retroperitoneal liposarcoma.

Without hesitation, Elena turned to the P.A. Herzen Moscow Research Oncological Institute, a branch of the Federal State Budgetary Institution “NMIC of Radiology” of the Ministry of Health of Russia, where she was safely operated on.

But, unfortunately, the peculiarity of liposarcoma is that this cunning and very evil tumor has a habit of relapsing.

In 2019, history repeated itself. And again, Elena had to go through a troublesome path from examination to removal of the tumor, although the treatment took place in one of the clinics near Moscow.

In 2021, the relapse made itself felt again. The tumor grew quickly and became much larger in size. According to Elena, the clinics to which she applied for treatment refused her, honestly admitting that the qualifications of doctors are not enough to remove a complex relapse.

Elena’s daughter again called the first attending physician from the P.A. Herzen Moscow Medical Institute in the hope of saving her mother. Over the past time, Ilya Kolobaev was appointed to head the thoracoabdominal department of the A.F. Tsyba MRSC – a branch of the FSBI “NMIC of Radiology”, so he invited his patient to the Obninsk radiological center for treatment.

Before the operation, a small but courageous and strong woman confessed to the doctor: “I will withstand any test, just to live.”

The doctors’ fears were justified. They had to fight a very cunning and insidious enemy, who, knowing that he could be destroyed, hid behind vital organs and main vessels in such a sophisticated way that it was impossible to extract him from there.

Doctors faced a massive adhesive process, liposarcoma literally sprouted into the intestines, ureters and engulfed the aorta and inferior vena cava.

For nine and a half hours there was a real battle for Elena’s health. The surgical team was headed by Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Andrey Kaprin.  Even he, who has seen numerous types and sizes of liposarcomas, admitted that surgeons will have an extremely complicated operation.

Surgeons – Andrey Kaprin, Ilya Kolobaev, Sergey Azumanov, Vladimir Yofik, Leonid Petrov, Dmitry Kudryavtsev jewelry, removing the tumor, part of the colon, right ureter, part of the aorta and inferior vena cava expressed special gratitude to the team of anesthesiologists led by Alexander Potapov, who, despite the sufficient blood loss, which always happens in such cases and despite the massive surgical expansion, she coped perfectly with the difficulties arising during the operation.

Our fragile but very strong patient has already been transferred from the intensive care unit to the ward and is undergoing rehabilitation after such a serious and extensive surgical intervention. We wish her a speedy recovery and discharge home to her beloved husband, children and grandchildren!

Press Service of the Federal State Budgetary Institution “NMIC of Radiology” of the Ministry of Health of Russia