Lung cancer tops the list of cancer-related deaths in the United States, surpassing colon, breast and prostate cancer deaths combined. For patients diagnosed late, survival is slim. Now, a new groundbreaking double lung transplant is giving patients without hope of becoming completely cancer-free.
Time was running out for Albert Khoury and Tannaz Ameli - both diagnosed with late-stage lung cancer.
"I coughed a huge mucus, and it was pink - there was blood in there," Khoury said.
"They gave me, like, three months," said Ameli.
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Out of options and out of time, until they heard about double lung transplants.
"In selected patients who have metastasis or cancer only located to the lung, and they have failed all the conventional treatments, we think we can provide a new treatment for those patients," said Dr. Ankit Bharat, Chief of Thoracic Surgery at Northwestern Medicine.
Traditionally, only one lung could be transplanted at a time. Now, Northwestern Medicine surgeons have performed the first five double lung transplants for cancer patients. This new approach places the patient on a heart-lung bypass. Both cancer-filled lungs and lymph nodes are removed, and the airways and the chest cavity are cleaned. Surgeons have to be extremely careful not to let a single cell spill into the patient's bloodstream or chest cavity.
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"We are now able to carefully remove the cancer-ridden lungs without causing metastasis or escape of these cancer cells," said Bharat.
The two donor lungs are then transplanted, and nearly two years after their transplants, both Khoury ad Ameli are cancer-free.
"This message is for anyone who has cancer - stay strong," Khoury said.
Surgeons at Northwestern Medicine first performed double lung transplants on COVID-19 patients. Post-transplant survival at one year was above 95%. It's important to note that the double lung transplant is only for people who have lung cancer confined to the lungs. They are planning to track 75 patients in a new research registry called DREAM -- Double Lung Transplant REgistry Aimed for Lung-limited Malignancies. You can find out more on clinicaltrials.gov.
Contributors to this news report include: Marsha Lewis, Producer; Matt Goldschmit, Videographer; Roque Correa, Editor.
