Double lung transplants successfully treat late-stage lung cancer, in a first with new technique

ABC News ^ | March 16, 2023, 4:47 PM | ByAerial Petty

[Red Badger]

Lung cancer is currently the third most common type of cancer in the U.S.

A new double lung transplant technique was successful for two patients with lung cancer, Northwestern Medicine announced. The hospital said it's leveraging that success into a new clinical program that will offer transplants to patients with end-stage lung cancer.

"Every morning when I open my eyes, like, I just can't believe it, and life has different meaning now," said Tannaz Ameli, the second person with lung cancer to receive the transplant, during a press briefing.

Lung cancer is currently the third most common type of cancer in the United States after skin cancer first, and breast cancer in women and prostate cancer in men second, according to the CDC. Yet more people die from lung cancer than any other type of cancer.

Treatment for lung cancer mostly depends on how much that cancer has spread. Patients may be treated with targeted medications, chemotherapy, radiation or surgery to remove the tumor. But those treatments don't always work, and for some people, a lung transplant is their only option.

Single lung transplants have been successfully performed since the 1980s, and now, more than 1500 single lung transplants happen each year, according to the CDC. But lung transplants for lung cancer aren't common.

That's because there's a high risk that cancer cells will spread from the lung into the rest of the body during the procedure — making it more likely the cancer will come back, said Dr. Ankit Bharat, chief of thoracic surgery and director of Northwestern Medicine Canning Thoracic Institute, in a press release.

When a patient needs both lungs replaced, the lungs are usually removed one after the other, Bharat said.

[Midwesterner53]

More progress. I lost both parents to lung cancer, I hope this works.

[Puppage]

Amen to that!