Woman with stage 4 colon cancer get a double-lung transplant at Northwestern in Chicago

After her colon cancer came back, Mandy Wilk had few options left to stay alive.

The disease had already spread to her liver when she was diagnosed with Stage 4 colorectal cancer in 2017. She tried every available treatment. But after receiving a liver transplant from her younger brother in 2020, the cancer still came back six months later, this time spreading to her lungs.

At that point, "I traveled to almost every major health system across the country, and they all told me there was nothing more they could do," Wilk told reporters during a news conference Wednesday at Northwestern Medicine Prentice Women's Hospital.

That's when the 42-year-old learned about Northwestern's Double Lung Replacement and Multidisciplinary Care program, also called DREAM. The initiative is the only one in the country that offers lung transplants to cancer patients who have run out of treatment options, according to Northwestern Medicine.

Wilk got a new set of lungs June 3 at Northwestern, a first for the hospital and likely the first in the world.

"Mandy's determination has no limits," said Dr. Catherine Myers, one of Wilk's doctors and a lung transplant pulmonologist at Northwestern. "When other hospitals told her there was nothing more that they could do, she really didn't take 'no' for an answer. Instead, she became part of medical history."

Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer diagnosed in both men and women. Increasingly, patients younger than 50 are being diagnosed with the disease. When colorectal cancer metastasizes, it typically spreads to the liver or the lungs. Cancers that start in or spread to the lungs are the culprit for most cancer-related deaths in the U.S.

Wilk has no signs of cancer in her body and has not needed further cancer treatments. An avid runner, she recently got the go-ahead from her pulmonologist to start running again.

"There isn't another hospital that would have given me an opportunity like this," Wilk said.

"During the surgery, we were able to meticulously remove the cancer-ridden lungs without allowing any cancerous cells to spill into her bloodstream and then put the brand-new lungs in," said Dr. Ankit Bharat, chief of thoracic surgery and director of the Northwestern Medicine Canning Thoracic Institute.

"I do want to express cautious optimism," Bharat said, adding that Wilk will continue to be closely monitored to determine the long-term impacts of her surgery. "But it does certainly give hope to many patients who don't have any other options."

Wilk has connections to Chicago. She grew up in north suburban Lake Zurich, and her husband is a television producer for the White Sox. Wilk works as an elementary curriculum and instruction specialist. The couple splits their time between Chicago and Minnesota.

Her goal is to eventually complete the Chicago Marathon with her new pair of lungs.