Published Nov 7, 2024

Doctors Misdiagnosed 59-Year-Old Man’s ‘Huge’ Stomach As Belly Fat, But It Was a 60-Pound Cancerous Tumor; Put on Ozempic & 12 Years To Get a Diagnosis

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Avoiding Misdiagnosis: Why Multiple Opinions Matter

Thomas Kraut, 59, struggled with his “belly fat” for 12 years before being correctly diagnosed with a rare, 60-pound cancerous tumor inside his stomach. His initial misdiagnosis of obesity and type 2 diabetes led him to be put on the blockbuster weight-loss drug ozempic.
The National Cancer Institute defines sarcoma as “a type of cancer that begins in bone or in the soft tissues of the body, including cartilage, fat, muscle, blood vessels, fibrous tissue or other connective or supportive tissue.” There are different types of sarcoma based on where the cancer forms.
“Most sarcomas don’t cause many of the symptoms that may be associated with other cancer,” Dr. Dale Shepard, director of the Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Institute Phase I and Sarcoma Programs, tells SurvivorNet.
When it comes to your health, be a little pushy. You know your body better than anyone else. When you see a doctor for a problem, don’t hesitate to make sure that your question is fully answered and that you are comfortable with the plan moving forward.
From a doctor’s perspective, every problem should have a diagnosis, a treatment, a plan for follow-up, and a plan for what happens next if the treatment doesn’t work.

Thomas Kraut, a 59-year-old Norwegian man, struggled with his presumed belly fat for 12 years before being correctly diagnosed with a rare, 60-pound cancerous tumor inside his stomach.

Prior to his diagnosis, Kraut, an optician, was told his continuous weight gain and growing stomach was because he was obese. His health problems began in 2011, and a year later, he was told he had type 2 diabetes and obesity, prompting doctors to put him on the blockbuster weight loss drug Ozempic.

According to the New York Post, Kraut said in a recent interview, “My stomach kept getting bigger. I went from doctor to doctor and in 2019 I was finally approved for a gastric sleeve.”

However, while his doctor was prepping for the gastric sleeve operation to combat his weight problem, the doctor noticed he had a huge a malignant tumor inside his belly, something that was confirmed with a CT scan two weeks later.

Doctors then informed him he had a “rare fatty tumor,” compiled of “smaller cancerous areas surrounded by fat,” as per the Post.

Looking back on his doctors’ thinking he was obese, he said, “The doctors only ever talked about being overweight and diabetes. I was given Ozempic for diabetes and before the gastric sleeve I had to attend nutrition and fitness courses for several years.

“In addition, I had lost so much weight with the change in diet and Ozempic that my face and arms were very thin. Only my stomach was huge. The doctor even said that I was actually malnourished.”

Ozempic, the brand name of Novo Nordisk’s semaglutide, a highly popular drug also known under the brand names Rybelsu and Wegovy, is an FDA-approved prescription medication for adults with type 2 diabetes. The drug, which is administered as a weekly injection, assists the body by helping the pancreas make more insulin, ultimately lowering blood sugar levels.

[Although Ozempic it has not been FDA-approved for weight loss, the drug has been prescribed by some doctors. If you’re considering taking a weight loss drug, talk with your care team about whether that’s a good option for you. And make sure you consider good diet and exercise practices as a part of your treatment plan.]

Once his doctor realized what the issue actually was, Kraut recalled the tumor, “pressed” on his stomach, adding, “It was hard and not soft, as is the case with fat.”

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Kraut also explained how his diagnosis was “a real shock” after 12 years of not knowing why his stomach was growing so large.

“My kidney was affected because the tumor was feeding on my right kidney,” he said.

He ultimately had the massive tumor surgically removed in a 10-hour operation on September 26, 2023.

It totaled 60.18 pounds and was 20.59 inches in diameter.

Following the surgery, Kraut, who is suing the doctors who misdiagnosed him, learned the tumor negatively impacted his small intestine and kidney, leading doctors to remove his right kidney and a section of his small intestine.

Since there is still cancerous tumor tissue inside of him, which is connected to other organs and couldn’t be removed, Kraut will be seeing his oncologist every six months to check on it.

Understanding Sarcomas: What is a Liposarcoma?

If you receive a diagnosis of a common cancer such as prostate cancer or breast cancer you might already have some sense of what that means. But what if you learn you have a sarcoma? These are much more rare, and less likely to be discussed in casual office visits or among friends. In fact, this rare and diverse group of diseases accounts for about 1% of adult tumors and about 10% of tumors in children.

“Sarcomas are rare and the cause in most patients is unknown,” Dr. Vishal Gupta, site director of radiation oncology at The Blavatnik Family Chelsea Medical Center, tells SurvivorNet.

The National Cancer Institute defines sarcoma as “a type of cancer that begins in bone or in the soft tissues of the body, including cartilage, fat, muscle, blood vessels, fibrous tissue or other connective or supportive tissue.”

There are different types of sarcoma based on where the cancer forms. For example, according to NCI, osteosarcoma forms in bone, liposarcoma forms in fat and rhabdomyosarcoma forms in muscle. There are more than 70 types of sarcoma, 50 of which are classified as soft tissue sarcoma.

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The typical symptom of sarcoma is a slow-growing, painless mass. But sarcoma can be hard to detect through symptoms.

“Most sarcomas don’t cause many of the symptoms that may be associated with other cancer,” Dr. Dale Shepard, director of the Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Institute Phase I and Sarcoma Programs, tells SurvivorNet.

Liposarcoma a type of soft tissue sarcoma is a rare form of sarcoma cancer. It can start anywhere in the body, according to the American Cancer Society, but they most often start in the thigh, behind the knee and inside the back of the abdomen. They occur mostly in adults between 50 and 65 years old. These tumors account for about 18% of all soft tissue sarcomas.

Meanwhile, Dr. George Demetri, director of the Sarcoma and Bone Oncology Center at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, told SurvivorNet in an earlier interview, “There are hundreds of different kinds of sarcomas, which come from different kinds of cells.”

A few of the known sarcoma-types include:

Osteosarcomas, which occur in the bones
Angiosarcomas appear in the lining of the blood vessels
Ewing’s Sarcoma develops in the soft tissue surrounding the bone
Synovial Sarcoma occurs in the cells surrounding joints and tendons, often around the knee
Liposarcoma develops from fat cells and often occurs in the torso, limbs, or deep within the abdominal lining.
Chondrosarcoma occurs in the cells of the cartilage, mostly in adults over 40

About half of soft tissue sarcomas start in an arm or leg. Most people notice a lump that’s grown over weeks or months. The lump may or may not hurt.

When sarcomas grow in the back of the abdomen, they may press on nerves, blood vessels or other organs, or cause blockage or bleeding of the stomach or bowels. They can grow large enough for the tumor to be felt in the belly. Sometimes the tumors themselves cause pain. Approximately four of 10 sarcomas begin in the abdomen.

Avoiding Provider Bias – Is Your Doctor Understanding You?

While your doctor has undergone years of training and practice, they are still human, and may come with their own set of biases that can impact how they treat patients.

To combat these biases and really get the most out of your interactions with your doctor, you should provide her or him with plenty of information about your life and ask plenty of questions when things aren’t clear. To better understand how you should approach conversations with your doctor, we previously spoke with Dr. Dana Chase, gynecologic oncologist at Arizona Oncology.

According to Dr. Chase, physicians, like many of us, can be a bit biased when seeing patients. She made it clear that these biases are rarely sinister, but rather unconscious and more subtle.

She explained, “We have certain beliefs that we don’t know about. We might look, for example, at an older woman, and just by the way she looks we might make certain assumptions, and we might not even know that we’re making these assumptions.”

Let’s Talk About Provider Bias

Clearing up misconceptions is important, but so is understanding what your doctor is telling you, Dr. Chase noted. Overall, she advises women to speak up and ask questions when they don’t understand something.

“It’s never a bad thing to ask for something to be repeated, or to ask the doctors to explain it in different terms.”

So next time you go to your physician, speak up if you need clarity, so your doctor can understand you and you can understand them.

The Importance of Advocating for Yourself

Standing up for yourself is important. If you feel that you’re being dismissed or mistreated by a doctor. Getting a second opinion is crucial if something doesn’t feel right. Experts tell SurvivorNet that no one knows your body better than you, so if you feel like something is wrong, keep pushing for answers.

Dr. Zuri Murrell, a colorectal surgeon at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, previously told SurvivorNet that sometimes, patients need to be pushy.

“From a doctor’s perspective, every problem should have a diagnosis, a treatment, a plan for follow-up, and a plan for what happens next if the treatment doesn’t work,” Dr. Murrell said.

And as a patient, “If you don’t feel like each of these four things has been accomplished, just ask! Even if it requires multiple visits or seeing additional providers for a second opinion, always be your own advocate.”

Ultimately, patients advocating for their health can lead to better patient outcomes. This is especially important when you find your doctor has misdiagnosed your symptoms.

A component of advocating for yourself in healthcare includes going back to the doctor multiple times and even getting multiple opinions.

Dr. Steven Rosenberg is the National Cancer Institute Chief of Surgery, and he previously told SurvivorNet about the advantages of getting input from multiple doctors.

Cancer research legend urges patients to get multiple opinions.

“If I had any advice for you following a cancer diagnosis, it would be, first, to seek out multiple opinions as to the best care. Because finding a doctor who is up to the latest of information is important,” Dr. Rosenberg said.