Featured Image Credit: Northwestern Medicine
Topics: US News, Health, Good News, World News
Anish Vij
A Minneapolis woman with stage four terminal cancer has been cured thanks to a first-of-its-kind clinical program.
Last year, Tannaz Ameli was suffering from a lingering cough and was sadly diagnosed with stage four lung cancer.
Cancers of the lung happen to be the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States - and more people die of lung cancer than colon, breast and prostate cancers combined.
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However, after receiving a rare double lung transplant in June, the 64-year-old has become the second person who has been declared cancer free.
Albert Khoury, then aged 54, was the first person to have the life-saving operation back in 2021.
Thanks to a first-of-its-kind clinical program at Northwestern Medicine - called Double Lung Replacement and Multidisciplinary Care (DREAM) - select patients with stage 4 lung cancer, confined to the lungs, now have a chance of surviving.
On September 25, 2021, Khoury - from Chicago - became the first patient with stage 4 lung cancer to receive the lung transplant at Northwestern Medicine.
A year prior, Khoury was working as a cement finisher when he developed back pain, sneezing, chills, and a cough with mucus.
Despite initially thinking it was Covid-19, he was later diagnosed with lung cancer before being put in an intensive care unit on a ventilator when chemotherapy treatments failed.
But because the cancer hadn’t spread to other parts of his body, he was a candidate for the double lung transplant.
Eighteen months after receiving the lifesaving surgery, Khoury still has no signs of cancer left in his body and has since returned to work.
“My life went from zero to 100 because of Northwestern Medicine,” Khoury said as part of a Northwestern Medicine press release.
“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.”
While Khoury was receiving his transplant in September 2021, Tannaz Ameli of Minneapolis was suffering with a lingering cough.
By January 2022, the retired nurse was told she also had stage 4 lung cancer.
Similarly, when chemotherapy treatments didn’t help, doctors acknowledged that Ameli’s cancer was confined to the lungs and hadn’t spread to other parts of the body.
After being listed for a transplant, she received new lungs within 10 days on July 13, 2022.
“I begged my doctors in Minnesota to consider a lung transplant, but they wouldn’t do it. Luckily, my husband refused to give up and pushed for a second opinion,” Ameli explained in the press release.
“When I came to Northwestern Medicine, the first thing Dr. Bharat told me was, ‘I think we can make you cancer-free,’ and he delivered on those words.
"If you or your loved one has complex conditions such as lung cancer, Northwestern Medicine is the place to be. Everyone is amazing and I can’t thank them enough for saving my life.”
Khoury and Ameli have not required any further cancer therapy after the surgery.
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, contact American Cancer Society’s support line on 1-800-227-2345 or alternatively, you can visit their live chat through their website Monday-Friday 7am - 6:30pm.