NEW DELHI: An infant from Nepal who was only eight days old when he came to the capital with a rare form of malignant liver tumour is cancer free now after undergoing six cycles of chemotherapy and surgical resection, doctors said on Friday.
The baby, now three months old, was suffering from hepatoblastoma, a rare tumour that originates in cells of the liver, and was admitted to the Fortis Memorial Research Institute in Gurugram. Cancerous liver tumour in early childhood has an approximate incidence of 1.2 per million, while congenital hepatoblastoma is even rarer, doctors said. A team of doctors, led by Vikas Dua, principal director, paediatric hematology, oncology and BMT, managed the case through six cycles of chemotherapy and a surgical resection.
“The baby had a solid mass in the liver which was picked up incidentally on an antenatal scan. It was a challenging case considering the baby was a newborn. She tolerated chemotherapy well,” he said.
Ultrasonography of the abdomen revealed that two segments of her liver had a tumour. Chemotherapy was immediately started, followed by surgery and again some more cycles of chemotherapy, the doctors said.