UK’s first liver transplant for advanced bowel cancer is a success
A young woman is cancer-free after undergoing the UK’s first liver transplant for advanced bowel cancer.
Bianca Perea, a 32-year-old trainee lawyer from Manchester, was given the surgery in the hope it could offer a potential cure for her deadly disease.
The procedure has been a huge success and together with other treatments: targeted drug therapy, chemotherapy and surgery; she now has no signs of cancer anywhere in her body.
Ms Perea first visited her GP in Wigan, where she lives, after feeling a bit constipated and bloated.
She was referred to her local hospital where she had blood tests and a stool sample taken.
When medics noted high levels of blood in her stool, she was referred for a colonoscopy and biopsy.
Ms Perea was given the shocking news in November 2021 she had stage four bowel cancer – the most advanced kind – which had spread to all eight segments of her liver.
She told the PA news agency: “I actually didn’t have really bad symptoms at all.
“I’d noticed a change in my bowel habits and also bloating and a little bit of pain in my stomach.
“I was 29 at the time and I was never bloated to the extent I couldn’t do up my clothes or my trousers. It was just a little bit uncomfortable.
“But every time an advert on television would come up about cancer, even if it wasn’t bowel cancer, it would kind of jump out of the TV at me.
“It was quite weird, as if I was being told, ‘something’s not right’.”
During the colonoscopy, a camera on a thin tube was passed through the bowel to examine it in full detail.
Ms Perea said: “I remember the doctor at the time – there was a blockage in my bowel and he couldn’t get the camera past.
“He said to me, ‘I’ve taken some biopsies. If you were 60 and above, I would say that is most definitely cancer, but because you’re so young, I just can’t see how that could be that in you’.
“He said, ‘In the meantime, I don’t want to delay getting you a CT scan on the rest of your bowel and also your thorax and abdomen to see if it has it spread’.
“At that point, I felt a real, like, ‘Wow, is this something serious?'”
Following the biopsy, Ms Perea was called back to speak to doctors who delivered the devastating news she had cancer.
“I went into the room, and the doctor who had done my colonoscopy was there, and he told me, ‘This isn’t good. It is bowel cancer and it has spread to your liver’.
“He said, ‘We are looking at prolonging your life rather than a cure’. And I just remember everything slowed down.”
Ms Perea accepted the diagnosis, but said she refused to believe the outlook was so bleak.
“I don’t want to sound kind of ignorant or arrogant or anything like that but I just didn’t feel in my gut that that was going to be it,” she said.
An emergency stoma was fitted and Ms Perea’s mother asked about a possible transplant. But medics said it was not a feasible treatment.
She was then referred to the Christie NHS Foundation Trust’s local treatment centre in Wigan in early December 2021.
There, she had 37 rounds of a targeted drug called panitumumab plus chemotherapy for two and a half years.
Ms Perea had an excellent response to the treatment, which meant she could have an operation in May 2023 to remove the bowel tumour.
However, scans showed she still had tumours in her liver, which could not be operated on.
Nevertheless, because her response to chemotherapy had been so good and her bowel cancer was seemingly gone, doctors began to look at liver transplants.
Ms Perea was added to the transplant list in February 2024 and was lucky enough to find a donor, which meant she had the operation last summer at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.
She said: “Within four weeks of going under the knife, I was able to drive and walk the family dogs, it was really quite incredible.
“To go from being told I’d only have a short time to live to now being cancer-free is the greatest gift.
“I’ve been given a second chance at life and I’m going to grab it with both hands. I am so grateful to the family who agreed to donate their loved one’s liver.
“I do believe this is a cure. They’re always hesitant to say that, obviously, but I am cancer-free right now.”
Dr Kalena Marti, who is Ms Perea’s oncologist at the Christie, said: “To see that Bianca has had such a positive outcome is wonderful.
“When we looked at the tumour cells in her liver after it had been removed, they weren’t active.
“This is excellent news, and we hope that this means that the cancer won’t come back.
“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. As a result, it’s important that we continue to develop new treatments.
“Thanks to the generosity of organ donors and their loved ones, we can now access liver transplants for some patients, which is fantastic.”
Dr Ian Rowe, honorary consultant hepatologist at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “I’m delighted that Bianca has responded so well to the treatment and that she is now cancer-free.
“In Leeds, we are the third biggest centre for liver transplantation in the UK, and our specialist team serves a wide population across the North of England.
“We are, of course, indebted to the family of the organ donor – as is made clear with Bianca’s case, organ donation saves lives.
“It is important that people register their decision to donate on the NHS organ donor register and make their decision known to their loved ones. Families will always be consulted on any decisions around organ donation.”
Ms Perea is looking forward to going on holiday this year and is working on improving her fitness.
“My liver is doing really well,” she said. “I get tests on that, and I’ve just had my second scan and that’s all clear, so it’s really good.”
Published: by Radio NewsHub