Ghaziabad | A team of doctors at a city hospital has successfully performed a complex reconstructive surgery on an 11-year-old girl who had survived a rare and highly malignant cervical cancer, creating a new cervix and vagina to help restore normal bodily function and improve her quality of life.
The girl had been diagnosed with cervical rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare cancer that develops in muscle-like tissue of the cervix in 2020 when she was around five years old.
Though chemotherapy and major surgery cured her cancer in 2020, it led to the loss of normal cervical and vaginal structures, creating challenges for her physical health and future development.
Five years later, she returned to the hospital with complications related to body structure that could have affected her menstrual and reproductive health in the future, doctors at Manipal Hospitals Ghaziabad said.
A multidisciplinary team led by Dr Kundan, consultant, surgical oncology, at the hospital, carried out the rare reconstructive procedure on March 26 using a segment of the patient's intestine to create a new cervix and vagina.
The patient was discharged on March 30 and has since recovered well and resumed attending school, the hospital said in a statement.
"When a child goes through cancer, the impact goes far beyond the disease itself. Our goal was to give her childhood back and help her both physically and emotionally," Dr Kundan said.
"Through careful planning, we were able to reconstruct the affected structures and support her overall well-being. Such interventions are important to ensure that young survivors can lead healthy, confident and fulfilling lives after beating cancer," he said.
Dr Munisha Sharma, consultant gynaec-oncology at the hospital, said cancers affecting reproductive organs in children are extremely rare and require coordinated long-term care.
"Our focus was to ensure that the patient could regain normal bodily function and maintain better reproductive and menstrual health outcomes in the future. Early intervention, coordinated care and emotional support are equally important in the recovery journey of young patients," she said.
According to doctors, cervical rhabdomyosarcoma is among the rarest forms of soft tissue cancers seen in children and adolescents.
The hospital said the surgery highlighted the importance of a multidisciplinary approach in managing rare paediatric cancer cases and improving survivorship outcomes.
