How I missed a 5kg tumour the size of a football growing next to my baby until the 33rd week of my pregnancy… and why they sent me to see a physio

A young mother with a five-kilo cancerous tumor in her ovary growing next to her baby has revealed how the lesion went unnoticed for so long.

Emily Wiles, 28, from Brisbane, was 33 weeks pregnant with her second child Eli when doctors had to perform an emergency caesarean section after finding the huge mass.

Eli, now nine weeks, spent a short time in the NICU, but was relatively unaffected by the tumor growing next to him.

While the little boy appears to be in the clear, Emily has a long road ahead and is currently battling through four long months of chemotherapy while caring for baby Eli and her two-year-old toddler. Asa with the support of her husband, Luke.

Unfortunately, the tumor turned out to be small cell carcinoma of the ovarian hypercalcemic type (SCCOHT) – one of the most dangerous forms of ovarian cancer.

Emily told FEMAIL she doesn’t yet know what her future will hold as her type of cancer is rare and very little research has been done into fighting it.

“We have a lot of help, which makes a difference, but we just do our best and try to spend as much time together as possible,” she said of how they handle the workload.

Emily’s pregnancy with Eli was completely normal until she started having stomach pains at about 30 weeks.

“That was the only thing that gave anything away. The first few days we were like, ‘Oh, this is a little weird.’ It came and went. Nothing crazy, a little Panadol did the trick,” she said.

‘Every day it got worse and worse. Panadol didn’t take away anything, it became difficult to walk and eventually the pain became so severe I couldn’t sleep.’

Despite having a baby, a 5kg tumor and 4kg of fluid in her body, Emily’s bump was only slightly bigger than normal.

‘It was pretty normal until later. That photo of me was the morning of the surgery. This is what my belly looked like when I was almost 40 weeks pregnant with my first, I would say,” she said, referring to a Polaroid photo of her in the hospital.

“It was definitely a little bit bigger, but some people follow bigger anyway, so we didn’t think about it that much.”

The pain was so excruciating that Emily went to hospital, where she was told the pain was likely caused by problems with her ligaments and that she should see a physiotherapist.

“That photo of me was the morning of surgery, I’d say this is what my belly looked like when I was almost 40 weeks pregnant with my first,” Emily said

“You sometimes ask yourself, ‘Oh, it must just be pregnancy stuff, I have to suck it up,’ but it kept getting worse,” she said.

‘My husband said

“We’re not going to accept that this will be the rest of your pregnancy, so we’re going to ask for another opinion.”

At 31 weeks, she returned to hospital desperate for answers, where she was tested for a range of causes, including a urinary tract infection and premature labour, but nothing was found.

“I sat there questioning myself, trying to figure out how to better manage the pain, and they finally did an after-hours ultrasound,” she said.

‘Then the doctors discovered there was something in there that shouldn’t be there. They didn’t say at the time that they thought it was cancer, I don’t think they really knew.’

Emily was told by hospital staff that they had picked up something suspicious and that she needed to be transferred to another hospital.

“They said the baby is fine but there is something going on and we need to investigate further and they only described it as a growth,” she said.

She undergoes four months of chemotherapy because the tumor is a small cell carcinoma of the ovarian hypercalcemic type – one of the most dangerous forms of ovarian cancer.

“That’s when it clicked for us that this baby was going to come out.”

The next day Emily had two more ultrasounds and got the news that it was a tumor, but it wasn’t cancer yet.

“Back then they were limited to ultrasounds which don’t really give you the full picture if you look at anything other than the baby,” she said.

‘It was quite blurry and difficult for them to determine the size, especially with the baby next to them. All we knew was that there was something pretty big in there and we had to get it out.

‘It looked like it was going to be some kind of tumor and our reaction was that it would be benign, because what tumor grows so quickly? They are often benign tumors that grow faster.’

The mother was scheduled to have surgery the following week to remove the mass and deliver Eli.

Emily was worried about Eli coming sooner than expected and whether the tumor would cause more problems, but she wanted to stop being in so much pain.

On December 19, 2023, Eli was born seven weeks prematurely by caesarean section, weighing just 2.3 kg. He was taken to the NICU, where he recovered uneventfully

“The pain was completely uncontrollable, even in the hospital, with everything they could give me it was still bad, I can’t even describe it,” she said.

‘Initially we had hoped that I would be awake for the birth, but that would simply be too risky. At that point, I had been in pain for so long. I couldn’t wait to have the operation.’

On December 19, 2023, Eli was born seven weeks prematurely by caesarean section, weighing just 2.3 kg.

Dr. Sarah Janssens, director of obstetrics and gynecology at Mater Mothers’ Hospitals, who operated on Emily, said the biggest risk to Eli was that he was born prematurely, and not the tumor.

‘Cancer rarely affects the baby or crosses the placenta. The biggest risk to the baby in the womb is that the mother does not feel well,” she explained.

He was taken to the NICU, where he recovered uneventfully.

During the operation, doctors removed a tumor the size of a football from Emily’s ovary, as well as 10 pounds (4 kg) of excess fluid.

“They underestimated the size it would end up being, they definitely didn’t think it would be this big,” she said.

During the operation, doctors removed a tumor the size of a football from Emily’s ovary, as well as 10 pounds (4 kg) of excess fluid

Two days later, while recovering from the procedure, Emily discovered that tests revealed the tumor was ovarian cancer.

“It was as difficult as you can imagine because we had really convinced ourselves, because we wanted it to be that way, that it was benign,” she said.

“I was okay with it, I think what I struggled with was the implications, you have an idea of ​​what pregnancy and postpartum are going to be like. We wanted more kids after Eli, so there were a lot of layers to digest.

‘It wasn’t just that I had cancer, but you have cancer, you can’t breastfeed this baby and you probably won’t have any more children, it was a lot to process all at once. .’

Gynecological oncologist Dr. Rhett Morton from Mater Hospital Brisbane said Emily’s type of cancer, SCCOHT, is a very rare subtype of ovarian cancer and most likely to affect young women.

“Of every 10,000 women diagnosed with ovarian cancer, no more than one will be diagnosed with SCCOHT,” Dr Morton said.

Emily started chemotherapy on Christmas Eve, just five days after surgery, and will continue treatment until April.

“Normally they would never do that, chemo and surgery so close together, but we didn’t really have a choice,” she said.

‘That was tough and the post-chemo effects of that first round were very tough, especially because I was still recovering from the operation, which was really not that nice.’

Mater Cancer Care Center Senior Medical Oncologist Dr. Catherine Shannon said doctors planned to ‘throw the book at the cancer’ with chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant.

“The rarity of Emily’s situation makes an accurate prognosis very difficult as there are only a small number of reported cases,” she said.

‘The evidence we have suggests that very aggressive treatments provide the best patient outcome and survival. That is why we are looking at a stem cell transplant, which will allow us to escalate the intensity of chemotherapy.’

Emily shares her story during Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month to raise awareness of the warning signs of a disease that claims the lives of more than 1,000 Australian women every year.

“If I hadn’t been pregnant, I would have associated the symptoms with menstruation – cramps, strange bowel movements – and that really scares me,” she said.

‘I would encourage all young people and young women, especially when it comes to ovarian cancer, to take their health seriously and if they think something is wrong to speak up for themselves. Don’t assume everything is going well for you.’