Calcutta, Jan. 31: A 43-year-old woman has had a 15.3-kg cancerous tumour removed two years after she first felt a lump in her left breast.

Doctors at the city’s Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Cancer Research Institute, where Tamali Roy underwent a two-hour operation, have got in touch with Guinness World Records.

“It was a unique case. The patient came to us at a late stage when there was very little to be done. But we accepted the challenge and came out successful,” said Dr Ashis Mukherjee, medical director of the institute in Park Lane, who guided and monitored the treatment.

Roy, a resident of Tribeni in Hooghly, said she had been operated on by a local doctor last year but the tumour relapsed. She then tried homoeopathy, which made matters worse.

“The pain was intolerable. I could not even stand straight. Now, after the operation, there’s no problem.”

Roy had the surgery on January 12 and was discharged after a week. She now visits the institute every week for check-ups. She is given radiation that will lower the possibility of another relapse of the killer tumour, cystosarcoma phyllodes.

“The surgery has not only saved her but has also instilled faith in the minds of people that such operations can be done in Calcutta, too,” said Dr Subhasish Sarkar, consultant surgical oncologist, Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai.

“We have already recommended the case to Guinness World Records, European Society of Medical Oncology and American Society of Clinical Oncology,” said Pinaki Ranjan Gupta, the institute’s registrar.