Rare disease causes 23-year-old man to 'stop aging'

Luiz Augusto Márcio Marques, 23, living in Brazil, underwent multiple surgeries to remove a dangerous tumor in his brain at the age of 12 and shows no signs of aging, according to Oddity Central .

Specifically, at that time, Marques was diagnosed with craniopharyngioma, an extremely rare brain tumor, with a prevalence of only 1 in 1 million people. Doctors told the family that the tumor needed to be removed or the patient would die within the next few days. However, the surgery itself was risky, because the location of the tumor meant that Marques could lose the ability to walk, talk, or move his eyes, and his normal development could also be affected.

In the end, Marques' family decided to take a risk and saved his life. Although he made a near-full recovery, a series of subsequent tests showed that Marques' pituitary gland had been affected, making it difficult for him to develop normally.

To compensate for the pituitary gland's function, the doctors on Marques' treatment team said the family could have the patient injected with growth hormones, but this risked causing the remaining tumor in his brain to grow, so the family decided to skip this method.

Today, more than 10 years have passed, but Marques is still 1.62 m tall, weighs about 50 kg and looks the same as when he was 13. Doctors say it is difficult to predict how long this condition will continue and whether Marques will age like a normal person.

Marques himself said that the consequences of the surgery were difficult for him to accept. Not aging anymore made it difficult for the young man to integrate into the lives of his peers. However, he has now been able to accept the truth and feels lucky that he can continue to live after a long period of chemotherapy and a total of 12 initial surgeries.