A trainee lawyer from Greater Manchester has become the first UK patient to receive a liver transplant for advanced-stage bowel cancer that had progressed to the organ. Bianca Perea, who was 32 at the time of the pioneering operation in the summer of 2024, has now declared herself to be cancer-free, following treatment with targeted drug therapy, chemotherapy and surgery. “To go from being told I’d only have a short time to live to now being cancer-free is the greatest gift,” Perea said. She added that she was looking forward to a holiday and was working on her fitness.
Perea’s tumours had spread to all eight segments of her liver, leaving doctors with no choice but to consider a liver transplant. Although not an option for everyone, because of the rarity of advanced bowel cancer requiring liver transplantation, Dr Kalena Marti, Ms Perea’s oncologist at The Christie, said the success of Ms Perea’s treatment offered “more hope” to others. “Advanced bowel cancer is complex and there are lots of different types of the disease, so what works for one person might not work for another,” Dr Marti said. “As a result, it’s important we continue to develop new treatments.”
An NHS Blood and Transplant spokesman called the shortage of organ donors “tragic” and urged potential donors to confirm their wishes with loved ones. The first organ donor in the UK happened in 1960, and according to the National Health Service (NHS), over the past decade an average of three people die each day in the UK because of the shortage of organs.
Dr Ian Rowe, honorary consultant hepatologist at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, described Perea’s outcomes as “excellent news,” but he also sounded a note of caution, saying the operation’s success would be restricted to a small percentage of bowel-cancer patients where liver transplant was a viable treatment option. “For those people it will be the right thing and..we think it will work well,” Dr Rowe added. ” The number of people who have been transplanted like this is still very small internationally so we are all still learning about what those rules should be.”
Pamela Healy, British Liver Trust’s chief executive, hailed the “selflessness of organ donors and their families” for making transplants possible, and urged “everyone to confirm their wishes to become an organ donor and discuss them with loved ones.
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