Surgeons at Ghurki Trust Teaching Hospital in Lahore removed a pelvic tumor and reconstructed a patient’s hip using a customized implant produced through Chinese 3D-printing technology. The operation was performed on a 26 year old patient with a rare inherited bone condition who had developed chondrosarcoma, a form of bone cancer, in the socket of the left hip.
The tumor, and the surrounding bone that needed to be removed alongside it, made conventional reconstruction particularly difficult, according to Farshine Medical, the Chinese firm that produced the implant. The operating team, led by Prof. Amer Aziz, removed the cancer affected portion of the pelvis while preserving the patient’s leg, then fitted a custom designed, 3D-printed partial pelvic implant before carrying out a total hip replacement.
Ahead of the procedure, the medical team rehearsed the surgery using a printed model of the tumor along with patient specific surgical guides, allowing them to plan exactly where to cut the bone, how the implant would sit, and how the hip would ultimately be reconstructed. Ali Ijaz Ahmad, clinical lead for sarcoma services at Ghurki Trust and a member of the operating team, described the rehearsal as a critical step that allowed the team to verify bone cuts, guide positioning and implant fit before entering the operating room, noting that it marked one of the hospital’s earliest uses of patient specific instruments and 3D printing in orthopedic cancer surgery.
Farshine told China Economic Net it selected Pakistan as the first market for its overseas expansion due to close bilateral ties, geographic proximity and a favorable policy environment, adding that it plans to work with more Pakistani hospitals and expand into additional medical fields going forward. The case comes as Pakistan faces a growing need for specialized cancer treatment, with the International Agency for Research on Cancer estimating around 190,300 new cancer cases and 119,700 cancer deaths in the country in 2024. It also reflects expanding cooperation between China and Pakistan in advanced medical technology, following the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences in Islamabad performing the capital’s first robotic adrenalectomy in November 2025 using the Chinese developed Toumai surgical robot.
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