Miracle! How 'Bharat' helped woman become 2nd person to be CURED of terminal stage 4 lung cancer

By Team Newsable | First Published Mar 17, 2023, 5:04 PM IST

As Khoury's health condition worsened, doctors considered operating, encouraged by the fact the cancer was not metastasising to different parts of the body. The operation sees both lungs being removed and replaced by a donor's lungs in a single operation.

In what comes as a recent development, a second person has reportedly been cured of terminal lung cancer after a double lung transplant, thanks to Dr Ankit Bharat, chief of thoracic surgery and director of Northwestern Medicine Canning Thoracic Institute.

Tannaz Ameli, 64, who underwent the procedure in June, joins Albert Khoury, 54, who successfully received the operation at Northwestern in 2021. Ameli, of Minneapolis, Minnesota, has been declared cancer free having earlier been advised to seek end-of-life care.

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Usually, doctors refuse to offer lung transplants for patients at this late stage. Dr Ankit Bharat reportedly said that they are a "complete no-no".

But for Ameli and Khoury, their cancer did not spread beyond their lungs, a rare characteristic for stage 4 lung cancer. This made the duo a perfect candidate for the operation, as surgeons could completely remove the disease.

Using the same techniques they pioneered for , surgeons offer an innovative alternative solution for advanced lung cancer: . pic.twitter.com/tUnnPhm2zq

— Northwestern Medicine (@NorthwesternMed)

"These are patients diagnosed with some forms of lung cancer that have spread within the lung, are out of treatment options and have limited time to live," Dr Ankit Bharat said.

"In this unique program, we will include select patients with some forms of lung cancer that are limited to the lungs for the consideration of double-lung transplant if conventional or experimental treatments have failed. The purpose of DREAM is to provide the most comprehensive multidisciplinary care for these complex patients," he added.

According to various reports, lung cancer is one of the leading deaths in Americans, with the disease causing around 120,000 deaths each year. It is estimated that about 240,000 cases will be diagnosed in 2023. In the UK, there are around 34,800 lung cancer deaths every year, according to Cancer Research UK statistics from 2017-2019.

Khoury, a non-smoker who worked as a cement finisher for the Chicago Department of Transportation in early 2020, initially thought he had covid, but called his doctor after he started coughing up blood. He was later diagnosed with stage 1 lung cancer. Within months it was stage 2 and it continued to worsen.

It should also be noted that the doctors need to be extra careful as no cancer cells spill into the chest cavity or bloodstream, and cause the disease to spread elsewhere in the body. But 18 months after his operation, Khoury still shows no signs of cancer and has been able to return to work.

"My life went from zero to 100 because of Northwestern Medicine. You didn't see this smile on my face for over a year, but now I can't stop smiling. My medical team never gave up on me," he said.

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In late 2021, Ameli, a retired nurse and also a non-smoker, suffered a chronic cough and was later diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. When chemo did not help the retired nurse, the hospital suggested she be transferred to hospice for end-of-life care.

Ameli's husband pushed for a second opinion and she ended up at Northwestern Medicine. Surgeons there created a new technique to eliminate the cancer while minimising the risk of it spreading.

The new DREAM program at Northwestern gives optimism to other terminal lung cancer patients. In a new study dubbed DREAM, the outcomes of the program's first 75 patients will be tracked to follow the outcomes of transplants.

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