Man has surgery to remove a 1.4kg tumour from his neck after he ignored the growing lump for 20 YEARS

An Indian farmer has been given a new lease of life after doctors removed a humongous tumour from his neck.

Somai, 55, ignored the tumour for 20 years, thinking it was just a swollen thyroid gland, until it grew to be about the same size as the rest of his head.

When the non-cancerous tumour was cut off by doctors it weighed a giant 1.4kg – around the same as three pints of milk. 

Surgeons performed a three-and-a-half hour operation on Somai's neck to remove the growth, and now he can move his head without pain for the first time in years.

One of the doctors, at King George's Medical Hospital in Lucknow, about 300 miles south-east of New Delhi, said a tumour that size was 'quite rare'. 

Somai, from Basti in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, is recovering in hospital and will be sent home in the coming days.

He visited doctors when the growth become to painful for him to bear, and scans revealed it was a sub-mandibular tumour – meaning it began in his salivary gland.

About half of tumours there are – like Somai's – benign and not cancerous, and many can be cured by surgery.   

The surgery was a success, and Somai, who did not want to reveal his surname, can now move his head without pain for the first time in years. 

Dr. Onkar Vedak who was part of the surgical team at King George's Medical University Hospital said: '[Somai] visited our outpatients' department on July 12, and we admitted him.

'After going through the scan reports, we decided to remove the growth at the earliest, and the surgery was conducted the next day on July 13.

'The surgery was quite challenging and took about three and a half hours.

'It was a sub-mandibular tumour and was pressing hard on the carotid arteries which are major blood vessels in the neck that supply blood to the brain, neck and face.'

The carotid arteries are vital blood vessels, and the ones which you can feel your pulse in when you put your finger to your neck.

Somai's tumour grew out of a salivary gland, of which there are three along the jaw line.

Tumours in the submandibular glands tend to be smaller and are just below the jaw. Between 10 and 20 per cent of salivary gland tumours start here and around half of them are cancerous.  

The patient is recuperating post-surgery, and will be discharged after his stitches are removed.'

The surgery was conducted by chief surgeon Dr. Sunil Kumar, and assisted by Dr. Onkar Vedak, Dr. Priyanka Shrivastava, Dr. Krishna Choubey, Dr. Ampu Hage and anesthetist Dr. Ehsan Siddique.