Doctors at the Blokhin National Medical Research Center of Oncology performed a rare surgery on a patient, removing half of his body due to aggressive skin cancer. The complex operation lasted 12 hours, and remarkably, just three weeks later, the man was able to return home to Vyazma, the medical institution`s press service reported.
“Surgeons at the N. N. Blokhin National Medical Research Center of Oncology, part of the Russian Ministry of Health, successfully performed an exceptionally rare procedure – a hemicorporectomy, which involves the removal of half of the body, on a 43-year-old patient from the city of Vyazma in the Smolensk region,” the press service announced.
The patient, Sergei Filimonenkov, had been confined to a wheelchair for nearly twenty-five years following a severe injury sustained in an accident, according to the medical center. He subsequently developed osteomyelitis. In 2024, oncologists in Smolensk diagnosed him with skin cancer. By the time of the diagnosis, the squamous cell carcinoma had extensively affected almost his entire lower back area.
“The only remaining option to save this patient`s life was a hemicorporectomy. In our country, this operation had been performed only once before our case. Globally, the number of such procedures is around 80, but they are very rarely described in medical literature,” stated Renat Valiev, Head of the Onco-Orthopedics Department at the Center, as quoted by the press service.
Ivan Stilidi, the Director of the Center, Chief Freelance Oncologist of the Russian Ministry of Health, and an Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, made the crucial decision to undertake this highly complex surgical intervention.
“The surgery, expertly led by Ivan Stilidi, took 12 hours. Just three weeks after the hemicorporectomy, Sergei Sergeevich and his wife Margarita were able to go back home to Vyazma,” the press service added.
