Williamsburg, NY – 8-Year-Old Gets Leg Up on Cancer

Williamsburg, NY – AN 8-YEAR-OLD Brooklyn boy found a winning weapon in his battle against bone cancer this week: a metal rod and a magnet.

Avrum Rosenberg, of Williamsburg, was diagnosed with a tumor on his thigh bone in the spring and faced amputation to stop the rare cancer from spreading.

His second choice was equally grim: countless surgeries so doctors could install rod after rod in his thigh as he grew.

But on Tuesday, doctors at Manhattan’s Mount Sinai Hospital removed the tumor and replaced the destroyed bone with a recently FDA-approved rod that grows when it is placed under a magnet.

The magnet triggers the metal rod in his leg to expand, in an outpatient procedure that takes about 20 minutes, according to James Wittig, chief of orthopedic oncology at the hospital.

This is only the second time he’s used the new device since it was approved by the feds earlier this year.

“It’s a tragedy for a child to go through surgery once. I didn’t want him to have to go through it again and again,” said his father, Meyer Rosenberg, 42.

Avrum’s father’s explanation for this good fortune: “God answered our prayers.”