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Justin Stebbing: How a liver transplant helped one woman with bowel cancer become disease free

Justin Stebbing/healthpost.in

Jan 9, 2025, 10:35

Justin Stebbing: How a liver transplant helped one woman with bowel cancer become disease free

A 32-year-old woman from Manchester has become the first person in the UK to receive a liver transplant for advanced bowel cancer.

This procedure, usually done for primary liver cancers, marks an important step in treating bowel cancer that has spread to the liver.

This case offers new hope for patients with advanced cancer and shows that liver transplants could be a useful option in these cases. The article below explains more about this procedure, its impact on future cancer treatments, and the research needed to understand its long-term effects.

Justin Stebbing, visiting Professor of Cancer Medicine and Oncology at Imperial College, London and a Professor of Biomedical Sciences at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU), Cambridge, shared an article about this case on The Conversation:

“In a groundbreaking medical achievement in the UK, a 32-year-old woman from Manchester has undergone the country’s first liver transplant for advanced bowel cancer.

Bianca Perea was diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer in November 2021, with the disease having spread to all eight segments of her liver. Initially given a bleak prognosis, she responded really well to rounds of drug-based treatment.

Yet despite the promising response, the disease still remained in her liver. Because the cancer was so widespread, only a transplant would be able to remove the disease.

Perea’s liver transplant was performed in the summer of 2024. She has remained cancer free since then.

Although transplantation is more commonplace in treating primary liver cancers, Perea’s case adds to a growing body of research showing the procedure can benefit patients with advanced bowel cancer.”

Read full article at theconversation.com

Justin Stebbing is a visiting Professor of Cancer Medicine and Oncology at Imperial College, London and a Professor of Biomedical Sciences at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU), Cambridge. He was appointed the first NIHR oncology professor in 2011.

He is editor-in-chief of Nature’s cancer journal Oncogene. Prof. Stebbing has published over 700 peer-reviewed papers in leading academic journals. He is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, and the Royal College of Pathologists, and sits on many advisory boards. He is on the Editorial Board of OncoDaily.

Further Reading:

Small Bowel Cancer: Alarming Symptoms and Causes, Types, Diagnosis and Treatment