Doctors replace thigh bone of 12-year-old cancer patient, kid resumes walking, climbing

The doctors said the young boy was discharged and able to walk with support, barely five days after surgery.

Chennai: Doctors at a private hospital in Chennai successfully performed an 8-hour long procedure to replace the Femur (thigh bone) of a 12-year old Bangladeshi boy, who was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma (Bone Cancer that affects only the long bones). The doctors said the young boy was discharged and able to walk with support, barely five days after surgery. It was earlier believed that children diagnosed with this condition don’t survive longer than six months and the only treatment option used to be amputation. However, with recent advances in treatment, chemotherapy is performed and the cancerous tumor can be shrunk, following which the limb is replaced with a prosthetic one.