A 32-year-old woman is cancer-free after undergoing the UK’s first liver transplant for advanced bowel cancer.
Bianca Perea, a trainee lawyer from Manchester, was diagnosed with the most advanced kind of bowel cancer in November 2021, with doctors telling her they aimed to prolong her life rather than find a cure.
But, alongside other treatments including targeted drug therapy, chemotherapy and surgery, the transplant has been a huge success and Ms Perea now has no signs of cancer anywhere in her body.
Ms Perea first visited her GP in Wigan after feeling constipated and bloated. After tests, a colonoscopy and a biopsy, she was diagnosed with stage four bowel cancer, which had spread to all eight segments of her liver.
Ms Perea accepted the diagnosis, but said she refused to believe the outlook was so bleak.
“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.
Her mother asked about a possible transplant at that stage but was told it was not a feasible treatment.
Ms Perea had 37 rounds of a targeted drug called panitumumab plus chemotherapy for two and a half years.
She had an excellent response to the treatment, which meant she was able to have an operation in May 2023 to remove the bowel tumour.
But scans showed she still had tumours in her liver, which could not be operated on.
Bianca with her beloved dog. Pic: PA
Nevertheless, because her response to chemotherapy had been so good and her bowel cancer was seemingly gone, doctors began to look at liver transplants.
Ms Perea was added to the transplant list in February 2024 and was lucky enough to find a donor last summer.
An NHS Blood and Transplant Small Human Organ in Transit box at St George’s Hospital in Tooting, west London. File pic: PA
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.
“I do believe this is a cure. They’re always hesitant to say that, obviously, but I am cancer-free right now.”
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Now, Ms Perea is looking forward to going on holiday this year and is working on improving her fitness.
“My liver is doing really well,” she said. “I get tests on that, and I’ve just had my second scan and that’s all clear, so it’s really good.”
Dr Kalena Marti, Ms Perea’s oncologist, said: “To see that Bianca has had such a positive outcome is wonderful.
“When we looked at the tumour cells in her liver after it had been removed, they weren’t active.
“This is excellent news, and we hope that this means that the cancer won’t come back.”
She added: “Advanced bowel cancer is complex and there are lots of different types of the disease, so what works for one person might not work for another. As a result, it’s important that we continue to develop new treatments.
“Thanks to the generosity of organ donors and their loved ones, we can now access liver transplants for some patients, which is fantastic.”
You can watch a full interview with Ms Perea at 8.30am this morning on Sky News Breakfast.
