When nine-year-old Sydney Engle was diagnosed with osteosarcoma in her right arm, she and her parents had several options available to prevent the cancer from spreading. Due to the extent of Sydney’s disease and her young age, surgical procedures were difficult, and she needed an option that would grow with her body.

Faced with the possibility of amputation, or taking a bone from her leg for her arm, the Engles and her care team at UC Davis Health in Sacramento, Calif., opted for a rare procedure that used Sydney’s collarbone to create a new upper arm. The surgery, called clavicle pro humero, relocated the collarbone, stripping its blood supply from central vessels so it can function as an upper arm and a connection to the rest of the body.

“I believe our team was the first in the United States to do this years ago,” said R. Lor Randall, MD, a pediatric musculoskeletal oncologist and chief of the division of orthopedic surgery at UC Davis Health, one of the relatively few doctors who have performed the surgery. “I first learned about the procedure in 2005 while traveling in Africa, where there aren’t as many options as there are here. Today, we’re one of the most experienced teams in the world when it comes to using this technique.”

To learn more about the successful surgery and Sydney’s condition today, read this article from UC Davis Health.