Surgeons performed the first-ever split liver transplant to save two lives.
Colorectal cancer (a cancer that affects the colon or rectum) is the fourth most common cancer with an estimated 52,900 deaths expected in 2025. Fifty-year-old Barclay Missen was diagnosed with stage 4 colorectal cancer back in 2021. While a liver transplant was his only survival option, he did not qualify for the transplant. He tried chemotherapy to no avail, and doctors were preparing to put him on hospice.
When things looked grim, Kelli Podrez made the decision of a lifetime. Podrez was at the top of the transplant list. Northwestern Medicine in Chicago reached out to her and asked for her consent to perform a new procedure.
Podrez didn’t hesitate. She said that she had lost her brother-in-law to colorectal cancer and thought it was meant to be.
“I thought it was kind of cool that they were saving two lives. There would be no question for me. It was going to save someone else’s life.”
The procedure involved cutting out the cancerous section of Missen’s liver and adding in a small section of the donated liver. They then transported the rest of the liver to Podrez.
Dr. Satish Nadig, one of the transplant surgeons for the procedure, explained the process.
“We took out half of his liver, leaving one half that still had cancer in it. We transplanted the small portion of the liver, waiting two weeks for it to grow to a full size… then completed the oncologic operation by taking out the rest of the cancerous liver, rendering him cancer-free.”
After five months, Missen has made a full recovery.
“There’s an overarching layer of gratitude and love covering everything now,” he said. “The things I took for granted before-now I feel like it’s magic. It really is magic.”
Northwestern Clinic is now working to launch a new clinical program to allow this procedure for more patients. They are also hoping to make liver transplants more accessible for all patients with stage 4 colorectal cancer.