Somai, 55, ignored the tumor 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.
Doctors removed the non-cancerous tumor, which weighed a massive 1.4 kg, or roughly 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 tumor that size was ‘quite rare’.
Somai, a resident of Basti in Uttar Pradesh, northern India, is recuperating in the hospital and will return home in the upcoming days. He visited doctors when the growth became too painful for him to bear, and scans revealed it was a sub-mandibular tumor, meaning it began in his salivary gland.
Like Somai’s, about half of the tumors there are benign and not cancerous, and many are curable through 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.