A student who claims her “melon-sized” cancerous tumour was dismissed by doctors as a urinary tract infection says it was left so long it grew hair and teeth.
Mia Robins was finishing her freshman year of college when she found herself crawling across the bathroom floor in pain.
The 21-year-old from Liverpool noticed other symptoms including fatigue, weight loss and hair loss.
However, the biomedical sciences student said doctors ruled out these ailments with a series of diagnoses including alopecia, anemia and a urinary tract infection.
But Mrs. Robbins’ health continued to deteriorate and a The ultrasound performed in June 2022 confirmed that the student had ovaries cancer.
Mia Robins was finishing her freshman year of college when she found herself crawling across the bathroom floor in pain.
The biomedical sciences student said doctors ruled out these ailments with a series of diagnoses including alopecia, anemia and a urinary tract infection.
Ms Robins, who was 19 at the time, underwent emergency surgery to remove the growing tumour which doctors said was the size of a honeydew melon and filled with hair and teeth.
Ovarian cancer is the sixth most common cancer in the UK.
The disease kills about 11 women every day in Britain, on average, or 4,000 a year.
It also kills three times as many women in the United States each year, figures show.
It is often diagnosed late because symptoms are vague and may include indigestion, pelvic or abdominal pain, loss of appetite, constipation, and increased need to urinate.
Ovarian cancer is a rare form of the disease that develops in the ovaries, the female organs that produce eggs. It is often called the “silent killer” because symptoms do not appear until the later stages of the disease.
Mia Robins underwent emergency surgery to remove the growing tumor that doctors said was the size of a honeydew melon and filled with hair and teeth (left). She also noticed symptoms including fatigue, weight loss and hair loss (right).
About 93 percent of women diagnosed live five years or more if detected at the earliest stage, compared with just 13 percent diagnosed at stage four.
Stage three means that the cancer has spread outside the pelvis to the abdominal cavity or to the lymph nodes.
About one-fifth of women with ovarian cancer are also diagnosed in emergency rooms, often when it is too late for any treatment.
Ms Robins said the pain started after she had her appendix removed in December 2021.
“I would wake up in pain, like I needed to go to the bathroom right away. I would feel a lot of pressure and I would be dying to go to the bathroom, but the pain would go away as soon as I went to the bathroom,” she said.
She added: “I was also sleeping about 12 or 13 hours a day and staying up late to work. I wasn’t eating much either. I lost about 20 kilos and a dress size. Then my hair started falling out. I noticed I had a bald spot on the back of my head the size of the palm of my hand.”
“She had a huge lump in her stomach; she looked like she was four or five months pregnant.”
Ms. Robins went to A&E once again in June 2022, where further testing revealed the student had stage one ovarian cancer.
Ms. Robns went to the emergency room several times and constantly visited her primary care physician because her symptoms persisted.
She went to A&E twice in three weeks and says she had five GP appointments in six months because of her symptoms.
She said: ‘I was told lots of things, like I might have celiac disease, anaemia, alopecia and a urinary tract infection. I told them in A&E that I was dragging myself to the toilet in pain and they gave me antibiotics for a urinary tract infection, but I knew it wasn’t that.
“I took antibiotics and they didn’t help at all. I remember thinking maybe I had cancer and my friend said, ‘Don’t be silly.'”
Ms. Robins went to A&E once again in June 2022, where further testing revealed the student had stage one ovarian cancer.
Medical staff told her the tumor was the size of a cantaloupe and she would need to undergo emergency surgery immediately.
Medical staff told her the tumor was the size of a cantaloupe and she would need to undergo emergency surgery immediately.
Ms Robins said: “They caught it in time but it was huge. I had to have emergency surgery because it was the size of a honeydew melon, it was huge and it was growing. I was in a lot of pain because it was right on top of my bladder and it was causing me pain.”
“Being told it was the earliest stage and no other organs had been affected was a relief, but of course I was sad. It was all very overwhelming.
“I was a little angry that they hadn’t paid attention to my symptoms. I feel like if they had done an ultrasound earlier, they would have caught it. It took six months to diagnose me.
‘I was assured that everything would be fine and that I would persevere in returning to my normal routine.
‘The surgery was successful but they had to remove my right ovary, the fallopian tube, part of my abdomen and some lymph nodes.
“I was told the tumor had teeth and hair, which seems normal for a large tumor. It had such a good blood supply that it grew teeth and hair.”
In August, he was given the all-clear and has to undergo regular scans to make sure the cancer does not return.
Despite having the tumour removed, Ms Robins’ cancer returned in February 2023 and she underwent three months of chemotherapy treatment.
In August, he was given the all-clear and has to undergo regular tests to make sure the cancer does not return.
She said: ‘It was nice to know I was done with this and could get back to my normal life. This is the first summer I haven’t had to be in hospital for two years. I know I’ll be nervous for the rest of my life.
‘I felt a bit ignored because my symptoms weren’t taken into account. I was in a lot of pain and I knew it wasn’t a urinary tract infection. I didn’t feel believed. I felt ignored for six months.
“I tell other people that they should always consult with medical personnel if they feel something is not right. I could have died if I had not continued to go to the emergency room. My tumor would have continued to grow and I could have died.”
WHY IS OVARIAN CANCER CALLED A “SILENT KILLER”?
About 80 percent of ovarian cancer cases are diagnosed in advanced stages of the disease.
By the time of diagnosis, 60 percent of ovarian cancers have already spread to other parts of the body, reducing the five-year survival rate to 30 percent from 90 percent at the earliest stage.
It is diagnosed so late because of its location in the pelvis, according to Dr. Ronny Drapkin, an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania who has been studying the disease for more than two decades.
“The pelvis is like a bowl, so a tumour there can grow quite large before becoming visible,” Dr Drapkin told MailOnline.
The first symptoms that arise with ovarian cancer are gastrointestinal because the tumors may begin to push upward.
When a patient complains of gastrointestinal discomfort, doctors are more likely to focus on dietary change and other causes than to suggest ovarian cancer screening.
Dr. Drapkin said it’s usually not until a patient has persistent gastrointestinal symptoms that they undergo a screening test that reveals cancer.
“Ovarian cancer is often said to be a silent killer because it doesn’t have early symptoms, when in fact it does have symptoms, but they are very general and could be caused by other things,” she said.
“One of the things I tell women is that no one knows their body as well as they know themselves. If you feel like something isn’t right, chances are something isn’t right.”