Hyderabad: Apollo Cancer Hospital and Midhani (Mishra Dhatu Nigam Limited) together have for the first time in the country indigenously developed prosthesis for Osteosarcoma patients.

A team of doctors from Apollo have used it successfully on an 18-year-old patient treated for Osteosarcoma in Andhra Pradesh.

This was disclosed at a press conference today (Feb 12, 2004) by Dr Vijay Anand P Reddy, Director, Apollo Cancer Hospital and consultant clinical Oncologist, Dr. Somasekhar Reddy, Orthopaedic surgeon, and Dr. T P S Bhandari, surgical Oncologist, who diagnosed the problem on the patient.

They said the standard treatment adopted in Osteosarcoma is amputation of a limb to the limit the cancer has spread.

The doctors focused on organ and functional preservation through limb salvage surgery spanning 11 hours successfully implanting prosthesis a metal bone and joint in the area where the cancer affected bone was removed.