In a rare case perhaps more fitting for a horror movie, a middle-aged woman’s giant breast tumour broke through her skin and grew to epic proportions, Japanese doctors report.

The 52-year-old’s fleshy outgrowth posed an additional problem for clinicians, who had to settle on a “borderline” diagnosis of giant phyllodes tumour as a result of mixed histological findings.

The woman presented to Kanazawa Medical University Hospital in central Japan after noticing that the lump on her right breast, after six months of rapid growth, had broken through the skin and exposed its contents.

She also reported general malaise and anorexia.