An eight-year-old boy from Yemen is likely the second youngest in India to have been treated for papillary thyroid cancer, a condition mostly affecting adults. Just last year, a seven-year-old girl in Bengaluru was diagnosed with this condition. Dr Fazal Nabi, the paediatric doctor involved in the case at the city’s Jaslok Hospital, said it was after 20 years that he came across a case of this type of cancer in children, the last was in a 14-year-old girl.

The child visited the facility with a 4x4 cm swelling on the front and left side of the neck, which had been present for three months. Before visiting the city, the family had him checked at a health facility in Yemen where he was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. At Jaslok, the family had to again undergo a series of diagnoses to rule out any associated medical problems or further spread of cancer, after which the hospital decided to operate on the child.