Vietnamese doctors have successfully completed the country’s first-ever pelvis transplant on a patient suffering from bone cancer.

The surgery involved a 57-year-old man from Bac Giang province with bone cancer having his pelvis replaced by a titanium transplant.

The patient had undergone chemotherapy as part of treatment for a pelvic osteosarcoma at K hospital in Hanoi, and doctors recommended that he undergo surgery to remove the tumor.

He was later examined by Prof. Dr Tran Trung Dung from the Center for Joint Surgery and Sports Medicine, and following a consultation, doctors decided that it was necessary to carry out surgery to remove the hip in order to save the patient’s life.

During the seven-hour loing operation on January 11, Vietnamese surgeons successfully removed the patient's pelvis, in addition to the part of his hip affected by cancer, and replaced them with a prosthetic made from titanium.

Currently, the patient remains in a stable health condition and is now undergoing intensive therapy in order to help him to fully adapt to his new pelvis.