A rare voice box transplant helped a cancer patient speak again, part of a pioneering study
A Massachusetts man can speak again after surgeons removed his cancerous voice box and replaced it with a donated one, a pioneering move
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Massachusetts man has regained his voice after surgeons removed his cancerous larynx and, in a pioneering move, replaced it with a donated one.
Transplants of the so-called voice box are extremely rare, and normally aren't an option for people with active cancer. Marty Kedian is only the third person in the U.S. ever to undergo a total larynx transplant – the others, years ago, because of injuries – and one of a handful reported worldwide.
Surgeons at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona offered Kedian the transplant as part of a new clinical trial aimed at opening the potentially lifechanging operation to more patients, including some with cancer, the most common way to lose a larynx.
“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.”
