Surgery
Kansas City, Kan. -
Being at home and sitting on the porch is so good for John Jambrosic after getting grim news a little over a year ago.
"It's pretty amazing to have all these doctors give you the long face," said Jambrosic.
John had liver cancer, a huge tumor.
A new treatment called theraspheres might shrink the tumor. At the University of Kansas Hospital, millions of tiny glass beads containing radiation were injected directly into the tumor. It worked.
"All that white tumor has gone away," said Dr. Philip Johnson.
"I expected to see improvement in the tumor, shrinkage of the tumor. But to see it literally melt away, I did not expect that," said Dr. Johnson.
But John's liver was still badly damaged by Hepatitis C, and cancer cells could still be there.
"Trying to find that individual cancer cell that's there is virtually impossible and the problem is when it comes back . Re-treating them with the therapy generally isn't possible. So the cure is to remove the diseased organ," said Dr. Richard Gilroy.
A liver transplant. By shrinking the huge cancer, John became eligible for a transplant. He went on the list in June.
On July 5th, John was at Truman Lake, just ready to light the grill, when he got a phone call. A liver was available, but John was the back-up candidate. The first person got that one, but then another liver became available within 48 hours, this one for John.
"I was mildly stunned. I wasn't expecting that at all. I figured it would be years down the road," said John.
John came home just a week after the transplant, grateful for the family who gave the gift of life.
"Now his likelihood of being around at five years is greater than 70 percent," said Dr. Gilroy.
John's liver transplant was one of four at the University of Kansas hospital this month.
Over the last twelve months, 69 transplants were performed, the most ever at that hospital.
Meryl Lin McKean, FOX 4 News.
"It's pretty amazing to have all these doctors give you the long face," said Jambrosic.
John had liver cancer, a huge tumor.
A new treatment called theraspheres might shrink the tumor. At the University of Kansas Hospital, millions of tiny glass beads containing radiation were injected directly into the tumor. It worked.
"All that white tumor has gone away," said Dr. Philip Johnson.
"I expected to see improvement in the tumor, shrinkage of the tumor. But to see it literally melt away, I did not expect that," said Dr. Johnson.
But John's liver was still badly damaged by Hepatitis C, and cancer cells could still be there.
"Trying to find that individual cancer cell that's there is virtually impossible and the problem is when it comes back . Re-treating them with the therapy generally isn't possible. So the cure is to remove the diseased organ," said Dr. Richard Gilroy.
A liver transplant. By shrinking the huge cancer, John became eligible for a transplant. He went on the list in June.
On July 5th, John was at Truman Lake, just ready to light the grill, when he got a phone call. A liver was available, but John was the back-up candidate. The first person got that one, but then another liver became available within 48 hours, this one for John.
"I was mildly stunned. I wasn't expecting that at all. I figured it would be years down the road," said John.
John came home just a week after the transplant, grateful for the family who gave the gift of life.
"Now his likelihood of being around at five years is greater than 70 percent," said Dr. Gilroy.
John's liver transplant was one of four at the University of Kansas hospital this month.
Over the last twelve months, 69 transplants were performed, the most ever at that hospital.
Meryl Lin McKean, FOX 4 News.
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