The Story of a Doctor with Cancer Who Survived Thanks to the First Combined Lung–Liver Transplant

Time was running out for Dr. Gary Gibbon. Stage 3 lung cancer was the reason he received a combination of chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and immunotherapy. This combination had permanently damaged his lungs and caused irreparable damage to his liver.

Dr. Gibbon, a 69-year-old pulmonologist from Santa Monica, California, was able to continue his life thanks to a combined lung–liver transplant performed at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago. This successful operation was recorded as an important milestone in medicine.

According to a statement by Dr. Ankit Bharat, surgeon-in-chief and director of thoracic surgery at Northwestern Medicine's Canning Thoracic Institute, "To our knowledge, this is the first case in the country in which a patient with advanced lung cancer has successfully received a combined lung–liver transplant," he said. Dr. Bharat performed Dr. Gibbon's lung transplant.

"I have been a physician for decades, and at times we can be conservative with our treatment plans. That is why the magnitude of the science that went into this procedure is awe-inspiring to me," said Dr. Gibbon, a pulmonologist, allergist, and immunologist.

Dr. Gibbon was born in Cape Town, South Africa, but had spent the last 33 years in private practice in Santa Monica before becoming ill. In March 2023, he began coughing and losing weight. Imaging revealed stage 3 lung cancer .

Dr. Gibbon received chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and immunotherapy, but was hospitalized in mid-July with septic shock, pneumonia, and multiple organ failure. Immunotherapy had left his lungs irreversibly scarred, and they needed to be replaced.

"As a pulmonologist, I had never thought I would need a lung transplant — let alone for lung cancer," said Dr. Gibbon.

Northwestern University offers a first-of-its-kind clinical program called Double Lung Replacement and Multidisciplinary Care (DREAM= Double lung transplant REgistry Aimed for lung-limited Malignancies), and Dr. Gibbon turned to its doctors to save his life. While evaluating Dr. Gibbon, Northwestern doctors found that immunotherapy had also caused cirrhosis of the liver.

Dr. Gibbon was brought to Chicago on a 4-hour medical flight on September 10, 2023, to receive new lungs and a liver from the same donor during a 10-hour surgical procedure, and waited for donor organs in the intensive care unit at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. After spending 12 days on the transplant waiting list, he received his new lungs and liver.

The surgeons first implanted the new lungs, while the donor liver was kept alive outside the body by a machine that pumped warm, oxygenated, nutrient-rich blood into the organ — a technology that doctors call a "liver in a box."

The liver preservation technology gave Dr. Bharat enough time to remove Dr. Gibbon's damaged lungs and all of the cancer. Dr. Bharat removed both cancerous lungs and washed out the airways and chest cavity before transplanting the new lungs. During this process, Dr. Gibbon was on full heart and lung bypass.

"These patients may have billions of cancer cells in their lungs, so we must be extremely meticulous to prevent even a single cell from leaking into the patient's chest cavity or bloodstream," said Dr. Bharat. "We believe this technique may help reduce the risk of recurrence through the experience we gained with COVID-19 lung transplants."

Six months after surgery, Dr. Gibbon has no signs of cancer in his body and no longer needs any treatment, his doctors said. Dr. Gibbon will stay in Chicago throughout the summer so that the transplant team can monitor him closely.

Dr. Gibbon said, "This DREAM program is a new area for transplantation, and I am very happy to have been able to experience it and achieve a wonderful outcome. Without Northwestern Medicine, which made it possible for me to be here today, I would not be here."