Elisabeth Roldán, Malaga woman who underwent complex 4kg tumour removal, dies aged 39

Elisabeth Roldán Cómitre, a 39-year-old woman from Malaga, passed away on Sunday from Ewing's sarcoma, which she had suffered from since she was 16 years old. Her case garnered national media attention last month after renowned thoracic surgeon Diego González Rivas removed a four-kilo tumour from her lung earlier in January at San Rafael hospital in La Coruña.

The tumour had grown in the pleura of her lung. Eli, as she was known in her neighbourhood of Portada Alta, was much-loved in her community and had hoped the procedure would buy her time to continue treatment for a disease that had plagued her for over two decades. "I'm reborn", she told SUR when interviewed post-surgery.

"He told me that I had three months to live, that it had to be removed and was shocked I hadn't been operated on for this already," she told SUR.

Elisabeth's long history with Ewing's sarcoma, a rare and aggressive cancer that usually originates in the bones but can also appear in soft tissues, began in 2009. The first tumour appeared in her head when she was 16. The operation that followed was successful, but the subsequent treatment was so harsh that "it ate away at two bones in my hip, and I've had prosthetics ever since," she said.

She was treated for this tumour until September 2024, when she was discharged. Barely a month later, she went to the emergency department of a hospital in Malaga for gastroenteritis and a doctor noticed fluid in her lung. A test revealed she had Ewing's sarcoma.

She spent 18 months undergoing chemotherapy, but the doctors who were treating her decided not to operate as the tumour was in the pleura of the lung and close to her heart. It had shifted completely to the right side of her thorax.

"I had no life left, I couldn't breathe properly, I couldn't walk or lead a normal life, I was on sick leave: the tumour was pressing on me, getting bigger and bigger, and it was already on my right side. I was at risk of sudden death in a few months", she told SUR.

Early diagnosis is key in this type of sarcoma and treatment combines chemotherapy, surgery and/or radiotherapy. It can be a fatal disease, but not always: when the tumour is localised, the five-year survival rate is around 65-75 per cent, while if metastases are present at the time of diagnosis, survival drops to 20-30 per cent.

As they grew desperate about the tumour, they spotted thoracic surgeon Diego González Rivas on social media. Eli sent a TikTok video to her brother Aurelio, who called the number provided by the surgeon and he answered the call. The surgeon asked for the CAT scans and any information they might have on the case. They sent them to him and then travelled to La Coruña in Galicia. Everything happened between 31 December and 2 January, when Eli had the surgery. She had already been advised to see this doctor.

The operation lasted five hours. She described 2 January as her best Three Kings' Day ever. She shared this medical feat with the world thanks to the surgeon's social media.

Her return home to Portada Alta was triumphant. All the neighbours greeted her with applause in the street despite the rain. A huge banner held up by some of the local residents awaited her: "Elisabeth, Portada loves you".

"The welcome was spectacular. At the airport, my whole family was there, my entire team from Carlos Haya Hospital (where I work) and my friends. I was speechless. Back in the neighbourhood, despite the rain, everyone was so supportive. They called me 'Warrior', 'Champion' and said 'Eli, we love you'. They gave me a picture of a phoenix that reads: 'And from the ashes rose the mighty warrior'".

These were the words from Elisabeth Roldán when she spoke with SUR on 23 January, adding that she would have to continue treatment to overcome the after-effects of the surgery. "Even though they removed everything, there are still cancerous cells left and they have to be killed," she said.

She never lost her optimism or her smile. All of Malaga will always remember her as a person who loved life.