Tanya Angus, 34, was 7 feet 2 inches tall and weighed about 400 pounds. She had "gigantism." The Las Vegas woman who couldn't stop growing has died.

  • section9_bateau

     As someone who spent years suffering with a pituitary tumor and all the associated hassles, I find myself wondering why she wasn’t treated for it.  My case wasn’t very clear-cut, so doctors, even at Mayo, didn’t want to treat me, but it seems like her case was, and effective treatments are available, they won’t reverse the growth of course, but they can destroy the tumor and stop it getting worse, and help with many of the side effects, like the chronic pain (though Lyrica did wonders for that!) 

    • CH

      They tried to treat it (see the link I posted below). She had radiation treatment and three surgeries, but due to the location of the tumor it was unsuccessful.

  • http://www.facebook.com/rgluer Robert Gluer

    She was not suffering from acromegaly, she was suffering from gigantism.  It’s the same process, but acromegaly is in adults after the bones have fused vs. gigantism in children, who then grow very tall.

    • CH

      No, she was suffering from acromegaly. She was normal sized until early adulthood, when a pituitary tumor caused massive growth hormone levels and her to grow again. An article with “before and after” pictures: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2262344/Tanya-Angus-Woman-fighting-worlds-worst-cases-gigantism-grew-nearly-7ft-400lbs-dies.html

      • Jemmy

         It may be nitpicky, but I have to agree with Robert. If the excess HGH caused her to grow in stature in addition to thickening soft tissues, it’s classified as gigantism, because the process started prior to her last epiphyseal (growth) plates fusing. What’s odd is that almost all females have reached skeletal maturity by age 21, which is when she was noted in the article to have started growing again. Maybe the closure of her epiphyseal plates was delayed, possibly by sex hormone changes (lower testosterone levels?) brought about by the growing pituitary tumor, which hadn’t yet started producing HGH? Don’t remember enough endocrinology to know if that’s a viable theory.