Doctors from the Vietnam National Hospital of Paediatrics and the Vietnam National Heart Institute successfully replaced an inferior vena cava, the main vein in the stomach, and removed a tumour on a child who suffers from renal cancer.

He was the first child in Vietnam to receive the treatment.

Hoang Van Truong, 5, from the central province of Nghe An, was diagnosed with renal cancer in August 2012. Doctors had removed the tumour, but a year later he got stomach-ache and was transported to the Vietnam National Hospital of Paediatrics. They found that the tumour had metastasised to the inferior vena cava.

After Truong received chemotherapy to shrink the tumour, doctors removed it and replaced the injured vein.

He was discharged two weeks later and is now in stable condition.-VNA