Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
A Rare Voice Box Transplant Helped a Cancer Patient Speak Again, Part of a Pioneering Study
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 7 months ago on
July 9, 2024

In a groundbreaking move, a Massachusetts man has regained his voice after a rare larynx transplant, marking a significant step in cancer treatment. (AP/Mayo Clinic)

Share

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

WASHINGTON — 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.

Mayo Clinic’s Innovative Approach

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.”

He became emotional recalling the first time he phoned his 82-year-old mother after the surgery “and she could hear me. … That was important to me, to talk to my mother.”

Small Study, Big Impact

The study is small — just nine more people will be enrolled. But it may teach scientists best practices for these complex transplants so that one day they could be offered to more people who can’t breathe, swallow or speak on their own because of a damaged or surgically removed larynx.

“Patients become very reclusive, and very kind of walled off from the rest of the world,” said Dr. David Lott, Mayo’s chair of head and neck surgery in Phoenix. He started the study because “my patients tell me, ‘Yeah I may be alive but I’m not really living.'”

Lott’s team reported early results of the surgery Tuesday in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

The Importance of the Larynx

The larynx may be best known as the voice box but it’s also vital for breathing and swallowing. Muscular tissue flaps called vocal cords open to let air into the lungs, close to prevent food or drink from going the wrong way – and vibrate when air pushes past them to produce speech.

The first two U.S. larynx transplant recipients – at the Cleveland Clinic in 1998 and the University of California, Davis, in 2010 – had lost their voices to injuries, one from a motorcycle accident and the other damaged by a hospital ventilator.

But cancer is the biggest reason. The American Cancer Society estimates more than 12,600 people will be diagnosed with some form of laryngeal cancer this year. While today many undergo voice-preserving treatment, thousands of people have had their larynx completely removed, breathing through what’s called a tracheostomy tube in their neck and struggling to communicate.

Although the earlier U.S. recipients achieved near normal speech, doctors haven’t embraced these transplants. Partly that’s because people can survive without a larynx – while antirejection drugs that suppress the immune system could spark new or recurring tumors.

“We want to be able to push those boundaries but do it as safely and ethically as we can,” Lott said.

Head-and-neck specialists say the Mayo trial is key to helping larynx transplants become a viable option.

“It isn’t a ‘one-off,'” but an opportunity to finally learn from one patient before operating on the next, said Dr. Marshall Strome, who led the 1998 transplant in Cleveland.

This first attempt in a cancer patient “is the next important step,” he said.

Other options are being studied, noted Dr. Peter Belafsky of UC Davis, who helped perform the 2010 transplant. His patients at high risk of larynx loss record their voice in anticipation of next-generation speech devices that sound like them.

But Belafsky said there’s “still a shot” for larynx transplants to become more common while cautioning it likely will take years more research. One hurdle has been achieving enough nerve regrowth to breathe without a trach tube.

Kedian was diagnosed with a rare laryngeal cartilage cancer about a decade ago. The Haverhill, Massachusetts, man underwent more than a dozen surgeries, eventually needing a trach tube to help him breathe and swallow — and struggled even to muster a raspy whisper through it. He had to retire on disability.

Still the once gregarious Kedian, known for long conversations with strangers, wouldn’t let doctors remove his entire larynx to cure the cancer. He desperately wanted to read bedtime stories to his granddaughter, with his own voice rather than what he called robotic-sounding speech devices.

Then Kedian’s wife Gina tracked down the Mayo study. Lott decided he was a good candidate because his cancer wasn’t fast-growing and — especially important — Kedian already was taking antirejection drugs for an earlier kidney transplant.

It took 10 months to find a deceased donor with a healthy enough larynx just the right size.

Then on Feb. 29, six surgeons operated for 21 hours. After removing Kedian’s cancerous larynx, they transplanted the donated one plus necessary adjoining tissues – thyroid and parathyroid glands, the pharynx and upper part of the trachea – and tiny blood vessels to supply them. Finally, using new microsurgical techniques, they connected nerves critical for Kedian to feel when he needs to swallow and to move the vocal cords.

About three weeks later, Kedian said “hello.” Soon he’d relearned to swallow, working up from applesauce to macaroni and cheese and hamburgers. He got to say hi to granddaughter Charlotte via video, part of his homework to just keep talking.

“Every day it’s getting better,” said Kedian, who moves back to Massachusetts soon. His tracheostomy remains in place at least a few more months but “I’m pushing myself to make it go faster because I want these tubes out of me, to go back to a normal life.”

And just as Lott had assured him, Kedian retained his beloved Boston accent.

RELATED TOPICS:

DON'T MISS

Judge Says Fresno Can Change Street Names: Cesar Chavez Blvd Lawsuit Tossed

DON'T MISS

The Aga Khan, Spiritual Leader of Ismaili Muslims and a Philanthropist, Dies at 88

DON'T MISS

Trump Wants US to Take Ownership of Gaza and Redevelop It After Palestinians Are Resettled

DON'T MISS

Fresno High-Speed Chase Ends in Arrests After Crash, Standoff

DON'T MISS

NFL Commish Calls Chiefs Conspiracy Theory ‘Ridiculous’ but Terrell Owens Floats One

DON'T MISS

Where Will Californians Rally During Nationwide Protest Against Trump Administration?

DON'T MISS

Estee Lauder to Cut up to 7,000 Jobs as Sales Slide

DON'T MISS

Visalia Police Arrest Three, Seize Ghost Gun and Drugs

DON'T MISS

Mexico Deploys 10,000 National Guard Members to US Border: What to Know

DON'T MISS

Trump Says the ‘Gaza Thing Has Never Worked’

UP NEXT

The Aga Khan, Spiritual Leader of Ismaili Muslims and a Philanthropist, Dies at 88

UP NEXT

Trump Wants US to Take Ownership of Gaza and Redevelop It After Palestinians Are Resettled

UP NEXT

Fresno High-Speed Chase Ends in Arrests After Crash, Standoff

UP NEXT

NFL Commish Calls Chiefs Conspiracy Theory ‘Ridiculous’ but Terrell Owens Floats One

UP NEXT

Where Will Californians Rally During Nationwide Protest Against Trump Administration?

UP NEXT

Estee Lauder to Cut up to 7,000 Jobs as Sales Slide

UP NEXT

Visalia Police Arrest Three, Seize Ghost Gun and Drugs

UP NEXT

Mexico Deploys 10,000 National Guard Members to US Border: What to Know

UP NEXT

Trump Says the ‘Gaza Thing Has Never Worked’

UP NEXT

First Military Flight Departs to Send Migrants to Guantanamo Bay

Fresno High-Speed Chase Ends in Arrests After Crash, Standoff

11 hours ago

NFL Commish Calls Chiefs Conspiracy Theory ‘Ridiculous’ but Terrell Owens Floats One

11 hours ago

Where Will Californians Rally During Nationwide Protest Against Trump Administration?

11 hours ago

Estee Lauder to Cut up to 7,000 Jobs as Sales Slide

11 hours ago

Visalia Police Arrest Three, Seize Ghost Gun and Drugs

12 hours ago

Mexico Deploys 10,000 National Guard Members to US Border: What to Know

12 hours ago

Trump Says the ‘Gaza Thing Has Never Worked’

13 hours ago

First Military Flight Departs to Send Migrants to Guantanamo Bay

13 hours ago

A Tale of Two Local Districts: Implementing the CA Classroom Cell Phone Ban

14 hours ago

Hawaii Volcano Produces Tall Lava Fountaining in Latest Episode of Kilauea Eruption

14 hours ago

Judge Says Fresno Can Change Street Names: Cesar Chavez Blvd Lawsuit Tossed

Shortly after renaming eight miles of streets in south Fresno to honor labor organizer Cesar Chavez, a group of business owners and resident...

9 hours ago

9 hours ago

Judge Says Fresno Can Change Street Names: Cesar Chavez Blvd Lawsuit Tossed

The Aga Khan, spiritual head of Ismaili Muslims, listens to a speech during the inauguration of the restored 16th century Humayun's Tomb in New Delhi, India, Sept. 18, 2013. (AP File)
10 hours ago

The Aga Khan, Spiritual Leader of Ismaili Muslims and a Philanthropist, Dies at 88

10 hours ago

Trump Wants US to Take Ownership of Gaza and Redevelop It After Palestinians Are Resettled

A hit-and-run response in Fresno led to a high-speed chase, crash, and standoff, ending in two arrests after police intervention. (CHP)
11 hours ago

Fresno High-Speed Chase Ends in Arrests After Crash, Standoff

11 hours ago

NFL Commish Calls Chiefs Conspiracy Theory ‘Ridiculous’ but Terrell Owens Floats One

The 50501 Movement, a grassroots protest effort organizing demonstrations in all 50 states on February 5 to oppose fascism, emphasizes peaceful action and local participation, with planned protests at key sites, including California’s state Capitol. (GV Wire Composite)
11 hours ago

Where Will Californians Rally During Nationwide Protest Against Trump Administration?

11 hours ago

Estee Lauder to Cut up to 7,000 Jobs as Sales Slide

Three people were arrested on Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025, in Visalia after police found a ghost gun, high-capacity magazines, and drugs during a search warrant. (Visalia PD)
12 hours ago

Visalia Police Arrest Three, Seize Ghost Gun and Drugs

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend