Iranian boy gets cancer treatment in Israel

TEL HASHOMER, Israel (Reuters) - A 13-year-old cancer victim from Iran came to Israel for treatment on Friday, the hospital which received him said, attracting media interest in a country used to decades of hostility with Tehran.

The boy, who has an advanced brain tumour, had travelled from Turkey with his parents after undergoing surgery as well as chemotherapy and radiotherapy in Iran that failed to cure him, Chaim Sheba Medical Centre director Zeev Rotstein said.

Turkish doctors who examined the boy advised his family to seek help at Sheba, which has an international reputation and experience in treating patients from countries that have no diplomatic ties with Israel, Rotstein told Reuters.

"He has been suffering from the tumour for more than a year," Rotstein said. "We are doing our best, in the knowledge that his chances are not very good."

Sheba declined to give the boy's name, citing concern that his family could face legal problems when they return to Iran. The boy and his parents received permission to enter the Jewish state from the Israeli embassy in Ankara.

Iran is locked in difficult talks with Western powers over its nuclear programme and has stirred war fears with fiercely anti-Israel rhetoric. Israel, assumed to have the region's only atomic arsenal, has hinted it could attack its foe preemptively.