Surgeons at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago were able to keep a critically ill patient alive for 48 hours after removing both of his lungs, the hospital reported last week.

The patient, a 33-year-old Missouri resident whose name was not shared, was originally flown to Northwestern Memorial Hospital with lung failure linked to a flu infection in spring 2023.

When his condition escalated to severe pneumonia and sepsis, his heart stopped and the team performed CPR, according to a press release on the case.

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“He had developed an infection of his lungs that just could not be treated with any antibiotics because it was resistant to everything,” said Ankit Bharat, M.D., chief of thoracic surgery and executive director of the Northwestern Medicine Canning Thoracic Institute. “That infection caused his lungs to liquify and then continued to progress to the rest of his body.”

The lungs needed to be removed to stop the spread of infection, but there was a dangerous risk of immediate heart failure.

“The lungs act as a ‘shock absorber’ for the right side of the heart; when you remove them, the heart pumps against high resistance and can fail instantly,” Bharat told Fox News Digital. 

“Another critical danger is that without blood flowing from the lungs to the left heart, the left heart chambers can collapse or form deadly clots.”

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While the man remained on life support, the medical team designed a “total artificial lung system” (TAL) that took over gas exchange (oxygenation and CO₂ removal) and maintained blood flow to the heart in hopes that it could keep the patient alive after both of his diseased lungs were removed.

“A key innovation here is that we maintained the heart’s natural physiology. By using a ‘flow-adaptive’ design, we allowed the patient’s own heart to regulate blood flow, rather than forcing it with a machine,” Bharat said.

“Just one day after we took out the lungs, his body started to get better because the infection was gone.”

“Just one day after we took out the lungs, his body started to get better because the infection was gone.”

After 48 hours, the patient was stable enough to proceed with a double-lung transplant. Two years later, he is back to his regular routine.

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“The patient is doing remarkably well,” Dr. Bharat said. “He has excellent lung function, his heart function is preserved and he is completely functionally independent.”

This was the first successful application of this specific type of system, according to the medical team.

“While the concept of removing lungs and bridging to transplant has been attempted in rare cases historically, those prior attempts faced significant limitations regarding blood flow management and the risk of clots,” Bharat told Fox News Digital. 

“Our system is novel because it includes a self-regulating ‘shunt’ that mimics the natural physics of the lung to protect the heart, and it uses dual return tubes to maintain normal blood flow through the left heart chambers.”

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In a case study, which was published last week in the Cell Press journal Med, experts revealed a “molecular analysis” of the removed lungs, showing extensive scarring and damage. This supports the idea that in some severe cases of acute respiratory distress syndrome, transplantation may be the only viable option.

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Researchers hope that the TAL system could eventually be a viable strategy for patients who are waiting for donor lungs — specifically, those with severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) along with necrotizing pneumonia or septic shock.

“These patients have a mortality rate exceeding 80% and are often turned down for transplant because they are too infected,” Dr. Bharat said. “This technology allows us to ‘clean the slate’ by removing the infection, stabilizing the patient and bridging them to a successful transplant.”

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In the future, he added, they hope to develop durable, implantable artificial lungs that patients can live with long-term, not just as a bridge to transplant.

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Nearly half of cancers could be avoided by cutting out three major risk factors, a new study has revealed.

Research published this week in Nature Medicine identified that nearly 40% of global cancer cases are linked to tobacco (15% of new cases), infections (10%) and alcohol consumption (3%).

Overall, 7.1 million cancer diagnoses in 2022 were linked to 30 modifiable risk factors, according to the study.

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“The key here is that almost half of all cancers could be prevented by behavioral changes,” Dr. Marc Siegel, Fox News Digital senior medical analyst, told Fox News Digital.

Conducted by the World Health Organization and its International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the study analyzed global cancer data across 185 countries, matching it with exposure data for the 30 risk factors.

Lung, stomach and cervical cancers accounted for nearly half of the cases that were linked to modifiable risks, with many linked to viruses and bacteria like the human papillomavirus (HPV), hepatitis B and C, and Helicobacter pylori (a common bacterium that infects the stomach lining).

“Preventable cancers of the cervix and throat are directly linked to the HPV virus and can be prevented by the HPV vaccine,” added Siegel, who was not involved in the study.

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Lung cancer, throat and GI cancers, and several others were linked to cigarette smoking, and alcohol was associated with breast, liver, colon and throat cancer, the doctor noted.

“Environmental factors are also key, varying by geography — 45% of new cancers could be prevented in men, and 30% in women,” he said.

Study author Hanna Fink, from the Cancer Surveillance Branch at IARC/WHO, said the main message is that many cancers can be prevented.

“Almost four in 10 new cancer cases worldwide, which represent 7.1 million lives that don’t need to be changed by a cancer diagnosis, were linked to things we can change or modify through awareness and public-health action,” she told Fox News Digital.

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“These things include tobacco smoking, infections, alcohol consumption, excess body weight, air pollution, ultraviolet radiation and others.”

Looking ahead, the researchers recommend that stronger prevention strategies targeting tobacco use, infections, unhealthy body weight and alcohol use could substantially reduce global cancer cases.

“The key here is that almost half of all cancers could be prevented by behavioral changes.”

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“The study reinforces that cancer prevention works, and action is most effective at the population level,” Fink said. 

“Governments and communities play a crucial role by making healthy choices easier, for example, through higher tobacco and alcohol taxes, smoke-free policies, clear health warnings, safer workplaces, cleaner air, and affordable access to vaccination and screening. Individuals can support these by advocating for healthier environments and using available preventive services.”

Reducing the risk

The AIRC offers the following recommendations to minimize cancer risk.

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• Do not smoke, and if you do smoke, seek help to quit.
• Keep alcohol intake as low as possible, as “there is no safe level of alcohol for cancer risk.”
• Aim for a healthy body weight over time with a balanced diet and regular physical activity.
• Move more and sit less, as even small amounts of daily movement help.
• Take advantage of vaccines, especially the HPV vaccination for young people and the hepatitis B vaccination.

“As a family physician, I try to help my patients understand how important their daily habits are in lowering their future cancer risk,” said Dr. Chris Scuderi, a cancer survivor and Florida-based family physician.

The doctor’s key prevention targets include daily exercise, consistent and restorative sleep, a Mediterranean-style diet, regular doctor’s visits and sufficient rest.

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“Small daily wins add up to make a powerful difference over time,” added Scuderi, who also was not involved in the research. “It’s also essential to stay on top of your routine screenings, which your family physician can help you with.”

Potential limitations

The study did have some limitations. The researchers often used data from around 2012 due to the long delay between exposure and cancer, which means the data may not reflect the most recent behaviors or environments.

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“This is a necessary simplification, because in reality, latency can be longer or shorter depending on the cancer and the exposure,” Fink noted.

Siegel pointed out that cancer types vary by geographic region — for example, stomach cancer is more prominent in Asia — and the relationships between risk factors and cancer prevalence can differ between countries, populations and time periods.

“We rely on the best available data on how common each risk factor is in different countries and how strongly it is linked to cancer, but these data are not perfect and are weaker in some low- and middle-income countries,” Fink said.

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Finally, the study only looked at 30 risk factors with the strongest evidence and global data.

“Our estimate of ‘almost 40% of cancers are preventable’ is very likely conservative,” the researcher added. “Some other suspected causes, such as certain aspects of diet, could not be included because the science or the data are not yet robust enough at a global level.”