Saving A Girl’s Leg From Bone Cancer
Reported May 27, 2011
CLEVELAND, OH (Ivanhoe Newswire) — 2,300 cases of bone cancer are diagnosed each year in the United States. Although it’s relatively rare, treatment for this cancer can involve disfiguring surgery to remove large areas of tissue, and in severe cases, even amputation. Now, a donor bone gave one young girl a new leg and new hope for an active life.
15 year old Olivia Warhop would prefer to spend her time in a pool or on a soccer field, but instead she must spend hours exercising her leg by walking on a treadmill.
“It’s very hard for her because she’s very active and an athlete, Lori Warhop, Olivia’s mom, told Ivanhoe.
A recent cancer diagnosis sidelined this active teen. Doctors found a tumor on Olivias tibia bone.
“I can’t even climb the stairs at school. I have to take the elevator,” Olivia said. “They said they had to take bone out, and that scared me.
In fact, doctors had to take out 18 centimeters of her bone — about the length of a pencil! Then, doctors told her they would replace it with a donor bone.
“They talked about it as a donor bone, and I thought, ‘OK, what exactly does that mean?'” Lori said.
Dr. Michael Joyce, M.D., an orthopedic surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland Ohio, says bones can be donated and transplanted from deceased patients, just like organs.
“The only real reason Olivia was able to have this operation is because we had a bone that was donated by someone else Dr. Joyce said. “The goal is to provide a reconstruction that is a biological implant.”
First, doctors had to measure the size of Olivias bone. They then contacted bone and tissue banks to find a suitable match. The donated bone was stripped, cleaned and processed. Surgeons implanted the new “dead” bone against the existing “living” bone. The patient’s own bone will grow into and begin to replace the transplanted bone
Because the transplanted bones are dead and frozen, patients have a much lower chance of rejecting them. Dr. Joyce says 85 percent of the time, they have a good outcome. Like any true athlete, Olivia’s happy to show off her battle scar: 135 stitches later.
“I have no pain never,” Olivia said.
“We’re just waiting for the bone to heal, so she can get back to soccer,” Lori said.
Olivia hopes to be back to playing sports in a couple of months. Dr. Joyce says there are various agencies, including the FDA that strictly regulates the bone and tissue banks.
