currentsinbiology:

You never know whats inside a person and sometimes that’s okay.

Partially developed brain found in young girl’s ovary

A
team of surgeons performing a routine appendectomy on a young woman
also found and removed a tumor they noticed growing on their patient’s
ovary. Subsequent analysis of the tumor by researchers with the Shiga
Medical Centre for Adults in Japan revealed that the tumor contained a
teratoma with a brain-like structure along with a partially developed
skull bone and hair fragments. They have published their findings in the
journal Neuropathology.

Teratomas, also
known as dermoid cysts, are not all that uncommon, the researchers
report, but ones that have brain-like structures are extremely rare. In
this case, the teratoma, which is Greek for the word monster, held a
brain-like structure that was so advanced it had partially developed
into a cerebellum with a brain stem and was able to transmit electrical
pulses delivered by the research team.

Credit: Neuropathology (2017). DOI: 10.1111/neup.12360