In a landmark medical achievement, doctors at Mumbai's Bai Jerbai Wadia Hospital for Children have successfully performed India’s first-ever ex-situ (out-of-body) liver cancer surgery with autotransplantation on a three-year-old child, offering new hope for children with otherwise inoperable liver cancers.

"Apsha Shaikh was just two years four and months old when her father Saadam and mother Haseena brought her to the hospital. She was diagnosed with advanced hepatoblastoma — one of the most common liver cancers in children. However, investigations revealed that the tumour was centrally located and involved major blood vessels in and around the liver, making conventional surgery impossible," said Dr Pradnya Bendre, head of solid organ transplant and paediatric surgery.