Giant tumor growing for decades removed from neck area of Scottsdale man

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz - A Scottsdale man with a tumor the size of a watermelon is getting his life back to normal after dealing with the growing mass for nearly two decades.

The tumor has finally been removed thanks to a television show that helped Arizonan Tim Retter get it extracted for free.

"It weighted 5 ¾ pounds and somedays it felt like it was 50. I mean, it was just heavy," Retter said.

He first began to notice the bump in 2007 and that was just the start of the whole ordeal.

"It kind of became every little sport ball going until it became like a Ponderosa lemon hanging off my face," he said.

Finding a doctor to remove it became a challenge.

"Every time you would see one, they would tell you to see somebody else," he said. "Then it became - as I got insurance - it became out of network."

Retter was assured that the tumor was benign at first but soon it became an annoyance in his every day life and work as a mechanic. 

Last year in 2023, he received a life-changing call.

Dr. Ryan Osborne of Take My Tumor was the one who removed the surgery after years of suffering.

Osborne said the procedure came with a few risks, including First Bite Syndrome and the possibility of nerve damage.

"The other risk was that he was harboring an occult cancer," Dr. Osborne said. "When I say occult, I mean a cancer that wasn't visible to us, we weren't aware of it and we were going to find it only after surgery. When the pathologist looked through the specimen, we were very happy and fortunate that that did not occur."

Retter said that the healing process went well and he's back to doing things he used to do without the added burden.

Dr. Osborne says for the next year he will continue to keep in contact with Retter to make sure the tumor doesn't grow back.