Double Lung Transplant Cures Woman's Terminal Lung Cancer

Two patients with terminal stage 4 lung cancer have been cured after receiving a rare double lung transplant at Northwestern Medicine. The cancer did not spread beyond their lungs, making them perfect candidates for the operation. The new surgical technique involves putting the patient on full heart and lung bypass, delicately taking both cancer-ridden lungs out simultaneously along with the lymph nodes, washing the airways and the chest cavity to clear the cancer, and then putting new lungs in. The outcomes of the program's first 75 patients will be monitored in new research, called DREAM, to track the results of transplants.