41-year-old bone cancer patient with multiple surgeries gets new lease of life

Bengaluru: Doctors at HCG Cancer Hospital here have treated a 41-year-old man for recurrent chondrosarcoma, a rare type of bone cancer. The cancerous tumour that was in the left pelvis was removed through robotic surgery by Dr Raghunath and the team of specialists.

His first surgery 'hemipelvectomy' was performed in 2008 at a private hospital in Mumbai. As he wasn't completely cured, 5 more surgeries were performed in the due course which turned out to be unsuccessful. Naveen consulted top specialists across India and all of them ruled out the option of robotic surgery as he had already undergone multiple surgeries and there were high chances of damaging the other organs. Also, it was highly risky to remove prostate, as it would lead to muscle and nerve damage that could badly affect the control of urination and sexual function.

Later upon hearing about HCG Cancer Hospital Bengaluru's expertise in robotic surgery, he visited the hospital for consultation. He had a big lesion compressing his prostrate and displacing it from its position while also affecting the organs nearby. There was fat loss in several areas of the abdominal cavity as a result, due to which some soft tissues had solidified and had formed lobules. Upon understanding the history of Naveen, Dr. Raghunath conducted a physical examination to understand the condition of the patient. After an initial examination, Dr Raghunath along with his team of oncologists decided on performing robotic surgery to maximize the saving of organs and minimize damage.

Commenting on the complexities of the surgery, Dr Raghunath, Senior Consultant and Director of the Uro-Oncology and Robotic Surgery, HCG Cancer Hospital, said: "This is a unique case of chondrosarcoma (bone cancer), a complex case to deal with as the patient had undergone multiple surgeries earlier. Due to this, there were high chances of the nerves and muscles being damaged during the surgery or even affecting the prostate and the bladder which was highly challenging for us. There was a risk of injure to the rectum requiring colostomy, which would have compromised his quality of life. By performing robotic surgery precisely, injury to the rectum was also avoided. Overall, through advanced robotic surgery at our hospital, we were able to remove the tumours save his prostate and rectum and preserved his urinary and sexual function.