Bianca Perea. Credit: The Christie NHS Foundation Trust
32-year-old Bianca Perea has been thankfully declared cancer-free following the UK’s first liver transplant for advanced bowel cancer.
This pioneering procedure offers a beacon of hope to others facing similarly dire prognoses.
Bianca Perea was diagnosed with stage four bowel cancer In November 2021
Bianca Perea, a trainee lawyer from Manchester, was diagnosed with stage four bowel cancer, the most severe form, and was told that it had spread extensively to all segments of her liver.
Initially visiting her GP in Wigan due to constipation and bloating, Perea was subsequently referred for a colonoscopy and biopsy that confirmed the devastating diagnosis. Doctors informed her that the aim was to prolong her life, not cure her condition.
Perea kept faith. “I don’t want to sound kind of ignorant or arrogant or anything like that, but I just didn’t feel in my gut that that was going to be it,” she said.
Cancer treatment
Over the next two and a half years, Perea underwent an aggressive treatment regime at Christie NHS Foundation Trust, including 37 rounds of chemotherapy combined with the targeted drug panitumumab. The treatment successfully eradicated cancer from her bowels, enabling surgeons to remove the tumour in May 2023. However, the tumours in her liver remained inoperable.
Recognising her exceptional response to treatment, doctors explored the possibility of a liver transplant – a treatment previously deemed unfeasible for bowel cancer patients. In February 2024, she was added to the transplant list and received a donor liver last summer at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.
Remarkably, within weeks of the transplant, Perea was back on her feet. She said: “Within four weeks of going under the knife, I was able to drive and walk the family dogs, it was really quite incredible. To go from being told I’d only have a short time to live to now being cancer-free is the greatest gift. I’ve been given a second chance at life and I’m going to grab it with both hands. I am so grateful to the family who agreed to donate their loved one’s liver.”
Organ donation
Dr Ian Rowe, honorary consultant hepatologist at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, emphasised the role of organ donation in saving lives. “We are indebted to the family of the organ donor. Organ donation saves lives,” he said. He encouraged people to register their decision on the NHS Organ Donor Register and communicate their wishes to loved ones.
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