Cancer Patient Speaks Again After Larynx Transplant

A Massachusetts man has achieved a historic medical milestone by regaining his ability to speak following an unprecedented voice box transplant. This groundbreaking procedure, announced by the Mayo Clinic on Tuesday, represents the first successful larynx transplant in a patient with cancer. Marty Kedian, 59, underwent an extraordinarily complex 21-hour surgery on February 29, during which his cancerous larynx was removed and replaced with a donor larynx. This highly intricate operation also involved the transplantation of several additional structures: the pharynx, which is a crucial muscular tube aiding in both breathing and digestion; the upper trachea; the esophagus; the thyroid glands; as well as various blood vessels and nerves. The Mayo Clinic hailed this achievement as a significant advancement in medical science, marking a major leap forward in the field of organ transplantation.

Four months after the surgery, Kedian has successfully begun using his new voice, and he is now able to swallow and breathe independently. His medical team reports that his breathing is steadily improving, which is a promising indicator of his overall recovery. Kedian’s journey to this point has been marked by a decade-long struggle with a rare and aggressive form of laryngeal cancer known as chondrosarcoma. Over the years, he had endured numerous surgeries, but his condition had left him unable to speak, swallow, or breathe normally. He had been living with a tracheostomy, a procedure that creates an opening in the neck to allow breathing through a tube, which significantly impacted his quality of life. After expressing his deteriorated quality of life to his medical team, a decision was made to pursue the larynx transplant. The Mayo Clinic noted the considerable difficulty in finding a suitable donor, highlighting that it took 10 months to locate a donor with a healthy larynx of the appropriate size, underscoring the rarity and complexity of the procedure.

The American Cancer Society estimates that approximately 12,600 individuals will be diagnosed with laryngeal cancer this year, emphasizing the importance of ongoing advancements in treatment options. Kedian’s transplant is particularly significant as it is one of only three documented larynx transplants performed in the United States. None of the previous transplants had been conducted on cancer patients, making Kedian’s case especially groundbreaking. The Mayo Clinic describes laryngectomy as a “rare and complex” procedure that is performed only a few times globally. This rarity is partly because individuals can survive without a larynx, making the procedure a last resort. The first successful larynx transplant was carried out at the Cleveland Clinic in 1998 for a patient who lost his ability to speak due to a motorcycle accident. The second documented procedure took place at the University of California, Davis, in 2010, following damage to a woman’s larynx caused by a hospital ventilation tube. Dr. Peter Belafsky, who was involved in the UC Davis transplant, has noted that while alternative treatments are being explored, there remains hope that larynx transplants may become more common with continued research and technological progress.