A rare voice box transplant helped a cancer patient speak again, part of a pioneering study
A Massachusetts man has regained his voice after surgeons removed his cancerous larynx and, in a pioneering move, replaced it with a donated one.
“People need to keep their voice,” Kedian, 59, told The Associated Press four months after his transplant – still hoarse but able to keep up an hourlong conversation. “I want people to know this can be done.” “Patients become very reclusive, and very kind of walled off from the rest of the world,” said Dr. David Lott, Mayo’s chair of head and neck surgery in Phoenix. He started the study because “my patients tell me, ‘Yeah I may be alive but I’m not really living.’”The larynx may be best known as the voice box but it’s also vital for breathing and swallowing.
Although the earlier U.S. recipients achieved near-normal speech, doctors haven’t embraced these transplants. Partly that’s because people can survive without a larynx – while antirejection drugs that suppress the immune system could spark new or recurring tumors. “It isn’t a ‘one-off,’” but an opportunity to finally learn from one patient before operating on the next, said Dr. Marshall Strome, who led the 1998 transplant in Cleveland.Other options are being studied, noted Dr. Peter Belafsky of UC Davis, who helped perform the 2010 transplant. His patients at high risk of larynx loss record their voice in anticipation of next-generation speech devices that sound like them.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
New LGBTQ+ center serving San Fernando Valley opens in Sun ValleyThe center run by the nonprofit Somos Familia Valle offers much-needed services and programs in the Valley.
Read more »
Remembering Scottsdale PD Det. Ryan So at Valley Life Church: 'Until we meet again'It was a somber Sunday service honoring fallen Scottsdale Police Det. Ryan So. On this Father's Day, his friends and family remembered the man who touched so many lives.
Read more »
Bears rapid reaction: Hershey 5, Coachella Valley 2 (Game 2, Giant Center)The Calder Cup Finals, tied 1-1, shifts to California for the next three games.
Read more »
Future Heber Valley statue garden holding benefit concert, unveiling statues this summerThis summer, some sculptures for the future Christ in America Garden in Heber Valley will be shown in Provo, and a benefit concert will be held for the nonprofit building the park.
Read more »
The Valley’s Daniel Booko and Nia Sanchez Celebrate Twins’ 1st BirthdayUs Weekly has exclusive photos from The Valley’s Daniel Booko and Nia Sanchez’s twins’ first birthday party on Saturday, June 15
Read more »
Water shortage threatens agriculture industry in the Rio Grande ValleyCrops grown in the Rio Grande Valley, like citrus, corn and cotton, are suffering from the lack of water due to drought and international dispute with Mexico.
Read more »