Following two consecutive years of raised cholesterol on her annual exam, the 55-year-old sought to evaluate her health status more thoroughly. Having been a vegetarian since childhood and enjoying an active lifestyle, Tanya nonetheless faced a family history of heart disease. After consulting with her primary care physician, she chose to undergo a chest CT scan.
Rapid Diagnosis and Integrated Care
“The morning of my exams, I said to my husband, ‘I can’t believe I am doing this. I’m perfectly healthy,'” Tanya recalls. That afternoon, while at home in rural Montana, she checked her results online. She was relieved to see no calcified plaque in her coronary arteries. Then she read something unexpected: “a large mass in the chest measuring approximately 15 centimeters.” Shocking, she immediately called her doctor.
The next day, Tanya underwent additional CT imaging at her local hospital and met with a pulmonologist. The mass was near structures surrounding her heart and right lung, likely requiring surgery. Her husband, Peter, began searching for a thoracic team experienced in complex chest tumors. Before they even returned home, he called Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
“It all happened so fast,” Tanya says. “Within a few days of finding out I had this massive tumor, I was a patient at Mayo Clinic.” In April 2025, she met Dr. Janani Reisenauer, a Mayo Clinic thoracic surgeon and interventional pulmonologist. The mass was a thymoma, a rare tumor developing in the thymus, a small organ between the lungs and near the heart.
“What made Tanya’s case unusual was the sheer size of the tumor and how extensively it involved the structures around her heart and chest,” explains Dr. Reisenauer. The cancerous tumor measured approximately 15 centimeters, involving critical cardiovascular structures including the inferior vena cava, right ventricle, ascending aorta, and superior vena cava. It also compressed her right lung.
Treating it required expertise from multiple specialties. Her Mayo Clinic team included thoracic surgeons, thoracic medical oncologists, and cardiovascular surgeons. Before surgery, they recommended chemotherapy to shrink the tumor away from critical structures. Tanya met Dr. Aaron Mansfield, a thoracic medical oncologist.
“That’s when I realized I had cancer,” Tanya says. “He was so kind to explain everything that I felt ready and at ease.” But Tanya wanted Dr. Mansfield to know she needed to attend her son’s college graduation in two weeks. Her family needed to see her happy and confident she would recover.
Dr. Mansfield coordinated with Tanya’s doctors in Montana to allow chemotherapy close to home, starting after her graduation. “He worked around a life event that was important to me,” Tanya says. “It made me feel seen as a person.” She received chemotherapy infusions every three weeks for about three months. Imaging showed the tumor had shrunk slightly but remained close to her heart and major blood vessels.
Surgical Intervention and Recovery
Because of the tumor’s proximity to major cardiovascular structures, Dr. Reisenauer partnered with cardiovascular surgeons to plan the operation. On July 28, the team performed a complete thymectomy, removing Tanya’s thymus and tumor.
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Reaching such a large tumor required extensive access via a right hemi-clamshell incision through part of her breastbone and across her right chest. “It’s a little like seeing beneath the surface to understand how all the components fit together,” says Dr. Reisenauer. “By visualizing the anatomy and the relationship between structures, we can better understand what can be safely separated and plan the procedure more precisely.”
During the six-hour operation, surgeons carefully separated the tumor from critical structures, including the right side of Tanya’s heart, the superior vena cava, and the phrenic nerve, which controls the diaphragm and plays an important role in breathing. “The challenge was removing the large tumor in its entirety, without violating the tumor, which we know is a high risk for recurrence,” explains Dr. Reisenauer.
Early Recovery Indicators
Tanya’s husband Peter noted early signs the operation went well. Within a week, she walked 5,000 steps daily. She said, “What should have been one of the hardest recoveries of my life was easy because of the excellent care I received.”
The surgical team had successfully removed the entire tumor without extra interventions or complications. Within five weeks, she returned to regular exercise, completing her recovery swiftly and without issues.
Long-Term Follow-Up and Monitoring
Back in Montana, Tanya began regular follow-up appointments with Mayo Clinic specialists via telemedicine. These virtual visits included quarterly reviews of her complete blood count and annual imaging studies to monitor for any recurrence signs.
The thoracic surgeon emphasized that her case required lifelong surveillance given the tumor’s original proximity to critical structures.
Pathology reports confirmed negative surgical margins, indicating no cancer cells remained at the tissue edges. This finding provided strong evidence that the complete thymectomy had successfully achieved its goal.
In 2026, annual scans showed no evidence of disease recurrence. Tanya resumed her normal activities, including hiking and international travel, with her medical team’s continued guidance and support.