A team of doctors at the Shifa International Hospital in Islamabad has made a major development in health history of the country, they conducted the first-ever liver transplant in the country as a treatment to colorectal cancer, which has spread to the liver. This will be a giant leap on cancer treatment and transplant surgery in Pakistan.
The patient is a female Karachi resident and her colorectal cancer had spread all over her liver rendering it to be non-functional. Doctors had to perform a complex but life-saving surgery by taking out the whole cancerous liver and replacing it with part of healthy liver of her husband. This was a living donor procedure and it was successful.
Medical personnel and professionals providing the case attested that left liver lobe was transplanted on the husband after a thorough test was carried out to establish the compatibility and adequate preparation of the surgeries. The fact is, the patient has recovered so well and now lives a normal life without cancer although he is now free of the cancer.
As one of the specialists belonging to Shifa Surgical Team Said,
“This is a significant breakthrough in the war Pakistani has against advanced-stage cancers. Colon cancer spreading to liver was formerly described as an untreatable disease. However, a cure is now possible with the right skills and with the right teamwork.”
Important Procedure
- Cancer death around the globe is cause by colorectal cancer.
- In case this cancer reaches the liver, it is often regarded as untreatable.
- This is a great surgery that brings hope to new patients with the condition in Pakistan and also in the whole South Asia region.
Owing to the incredible potential and accuracy that this operation promises, transplant specialists and caregivers are excited as is medical evidence of the coming together of the fields of oncology (cancer medicine), hepatobiliary surgery (liver surgery and the bile ducts) and transplant medicine, along with a sense of caring.
This transplant has been successful and therefore it now makes Pakistan among the nations who can offer high level surgical treatment of complex cancer cases and this way more lives of people who have metastatic cancers will soon be saved.
