A two-year-old boy, suffering from a cancer considered very rare among children, lost a part of his jaw when doctors performed surgery to remove the tumour. But an eight-hour reconstructive surgery, during which a part of the boy’s calf bone was taken and attached to his jaw, has now given the child hope for a normal life. Dr Rajan Arora, who performed the surgery at the Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute and Research Centre, said it was the first such case he had handled. This, despite having performed approximately 500 reconstructive surgeries in the last two years. “This is a very complex reconstructive surgery, usually not performed on children. It is a rare surgery, and the first one I’ve performed on a two-and-a-half-year-old child,” Dr Arora said.
The disease the infant was suffering from, Ewing’s sarcoma, is a type of bone cancer considered very rare in paediatric oncology. The cancer usually affects those between 10 and 20 years of age. “This type of cancer itself is very rare, and it’s even more rare to see it in a child,” said Dr Shalini Mishra, consultant, paediatric surgical oncology, Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute and Research Centre. When the infant was examined, it was revealed that he had a localised tumour in his left jaw bone (mandible) till the mid-line. Dr Mishra said that radiation, typically used to shrink and kill cancer cells, had to be avoided.
“Radiation exposure would hamper his normal growth and have long-term side effects. So we had to opt for surgery wherein the left jaw and chin would be removed,” said Dr Mishra. But this would mean the child would have serious problems with speech and eating. “Losing the left jaw would mean he would lose his teeth. So we had to opt for reconstruction after the removal,” said Dr Mishra. For this, Dr Arora said, a “piece of the child’s fibula was taken out”. “Later, the fibula was remodelled to give it the shape of the removed lower jaw,” said Dr Arora.
“The procedure is done in adult patients suffering from oral cancer. But in children, very few such cases are reported,” Dr Mishra said. The child will be kept under observation for a year to track the growth of the jaw bone.
Kaunain Sheriff M is an award-winning investigative journalist and the National Health Editor at The Indian Express. He is the author of Johnson & Johnson Files: The Indian Secrets of a Global Giant, an investigation into one of the world’s most powerful pharmaceutical companies.
With over a decade of experience, Kaunain brings deep expertise in three areas of investigative journalism: law, health, and data. He currently leads The Indian Express newsroom’s in-depth coverage of health.
His work has earned some of the most prestigious honours in journalism, including the Ramnath Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism, the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) Award, and the Mumbai Press Club’s Red Ink Award.
Kaunain has also collaborated on major global investigations. He was part of the Implant Files project with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which exposed malpractices in the medical device industry across the world. He also contributed to an international investigation that uncovered how a Chinese big-data firm was monitoring thousands of prominent Indian individuals and institutions in real time.
Over the years, he has reported on several high-profile criminal trials, including the Hashimpura massacre, the 2G spectrum scam, and the coal block allocation case. Within The Indian Express, he has been honoured three times with the Indian Express Excellence Award for his investigations—on the anti-Sikh riots, the Vyapam exam scam, and the abuse of the National Security Act in Uttar Pradesh. ... Read More
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Doctors perform the surgery on the infant
