Doctors perform challenging surgery to treat patient

CHENNAI: Doctors at the Apollo Proton Cancer Centre successfully treated a 54-year-old woman from Assam who was diagnosed with cancerous lesion in the kidney. According to the doctors, the woman approached the hospital on June 13. She had sustained a fracture on her left thigh bone two months ago, and since then was bed ridden and completely immobile.

On evaluation and a biopsy, she was diagnosed with metastatic left renal cell carcinoma, a type of metastasis in which cancer cells from the original (primary) tumour travel and form a small number of new tumours in one or two other parts of the body, the doctors said.

Speaking at the press conference on Tuesday, Dr Vijay Kishore Reddy, senior consultant orthopaedic surgeon, Apollo Hospitals said, anaesthetising a kidney cancer patient with bone metastasis is a real challenge due to the risk of a blood clot in the blood vessels that can cause lung attack during and immediately after the surgery. Early detection through a multi-modal approach and treatment is important.

Dr Srivathsan Ramani, uro-oncologist, Apollo Hospitals, said the cancerous tumour kidney was removed with a minimally-invasive surgery. The fractured thigh bone was also fixed with megaprosthesis. Dr Vishnu Ramanujam, orthopaedic oncologist, Apollo Hospitals, said the specialists performed two procedures on the patient simultaneously. The knee joint containing the tumour was removed and replaced with a megaprosthesis. The patients was able to walk the next day.