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A team of American doctors achieves a feat and saves a 54-year-old patient from his terminal lung cancer by performing a double lung transplant. Hope for other patients.
It is a world first. Albert Khoury, a 54-year-old patient with terminal lung cancer was saved thanks to a double lung transplantannounced Thursday, March 24 the team of American doctors from Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago.
After being on the waiting list for two weeks, on September 25, 2021 the operation took place with the reluctance of the doctors in the face of the risk of relapse. However, six months later, they claim that the patient’s new lungs are functioning well and no traces of cancer cells have been found in his body.
“I had no chance of surviving”
With the first symptoms that appeared in 2020 such as coughing, sneezing and chills, this Chicago worker first thought he had contracted Covid. But it wasn’t until he started coughing up blood that Albert Khoury called his doctor and discovered that he actually had stage 1 lung cancer. “Because of the Covid-19 health emergency, I could not get treatment quickly. In July 2020, my cancer advanced to stage 2 and after some chemotherapy, it continued to grow until it reached stage 3 and then 4. The doctors told me that I had no chance of surviving”explains the patient in a statement.
A last hope offered to him when his sister told him about lung transplants at Northwestern Medicine Hospital, a pioneer in this act. That same year, surgeon Ankit Bharat’s team performed a double transplant on a young patient whose lungs had suffered due to Covid-19.
“Trillions” of cancer cells removed
While the treatments continue to fail on the patient, the doctors try everything and decide to operate on him. After seven hours of meticulous operation, the team removed “trillions” cancer cells being careful not to let it come in contact with his chest and bloodstream. Results, “Six months after the operation we are delighted with Albert’s progress, the collaboration on this case is one of our strengths at Northwestern Medicine Hospital and seeing Albert happy is our greatest reward”says Dr. Chae, in charge of the operation, in a press release.
“You haven’t seen that smile on my face in years, now I can’t stop smiling”, rejoices Albert Khoury in the press release from the hospital. Thanks to this successful operation, doctors continue to develop new protocols to treat lung cancer, which is the deadliest cancer in the United States but also in France.