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29-year-old woman looked ’20 weeks pregnant’ before she was diagnosed with cancer – other signs

Sarah SmithFebruary 22, 2023

A 29-year-old woman is looking forward to getting back to normal after her bloated belly turned out to be a rare complication of cancer. Victoria Grande from North Carolina in the US suffered from abdominal pain for 10 years and looked “20 weeks pregnant” due to a 11 cm cyst on her ovary. Further examination revealed that 100 tumors were growing inside her, a condition known as teratoma syndrome.

Victoria the bartender has struggled with stomach pain all her life and is used to suffering from urinary tract infections at least once a month.

Doctors would have attributed her pain to constipation, but in March 2022, Victoria’s symptoms worsened and she was “bent over in pain”.

She ended up in the emergency room and was taken for a CT scan, which in April 2022 revealed an 11 cm cyst on her right ovary. Doctors believed that she had been growing for 28 years.

Speaking to SWNS, Victoria said: “They told me that it is probably wrapping around my ovary and cutting off the blood supply. They said it would keep growing unless I had surgery to remove it.

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“The cyst was so big it was pushing my organs up and it was like I was 20 weeks pregnant inside my body.”

In April 2022, Victoria underwent keyhole surgery to cut open the cyst and remove it.

She said: “It was a very painful recovery as all my organs were going back to their original places.”

The cyst was taken for biopsy and the results were positive for cancer.

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“I saw this on my health app and said to my fiancé, Austin Curton, 32, ‘I think I have cancer,’” Victoria said. “It turns out the cyst grew out of the skin from which the cancer developed, and now it may be inside me.”

She was told she needed surgery to see if the cancer had spread to other parts of her body, and doctors were shocked to find 100 growing tumors when they opened her up.

Victoria said: “I was shut down again and told what they had found. They said they would have to remove anything that had a tumor.”

She was diagnosed with growing teratoma syndrome, a rare complication of teratoma, a type of tumor that can contain several different types of tissue, such as hair, muscle, and bone.

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In June 2022, Victoria underwent a 10-hour operation to remove tumors, as well as two parts of the lung, right fallopian tube, right ovary, gallbladder and appendix, which showed signs of cancer.

A month later, Victoria began chemotherapy, which she completed in October 2022 after six cycles, causing her hair to fall out.

She is now on medication and has CT scans every 13 months to make sure the cancer hasn’t returned.

Despite everything, Victoria remained positive and in February 2023 decided to dye her shaved hair pink – and decorated it with light hearts and a small cancerous ribbon at the back of her head.

“I like my baldness,” she said. “I wanted to turn it into something fun and my favorite color is pink.”

Now she plans to travel as much as possible in the next few years.

Symptoms of ovarian cysts and tumors may include: