Lung transplants extended survival for some patients with advanced lung cancer, study finds
Surgeons at Northwestern Medicine reported in JAMA that double-lung transplants can extend survival for a narrow group of patients whose stage 4 lung cancer is confined to the lungs and who have run out of standard options. Of 17 patients who received transplants, all were alive one year later; among 81 comparable patients treated with immunotherapy, chemotherapy, or radiation, most saw their cancer progress. Follow-up into 2026 recorded four cancer recurrences among the transplant recipients.
The result is striking but comes with heavy caveats. Transplantation for cancer runs against long-standing practice, because the immunosuppression that prevents organ rejection can also let residual tumor cells spread. The journal’s editors noted that donor lungs are a fixed, scarce resource, so every organ used this way is one unavailable to another patient on the waiting list, and they called for larger randomized studies before the approach is adopted more widely.