Amy Piccioli, 39 a mother of three from Los Angeles, survived stage 4 colorectal cancer after undergoing a living donor liver transplant at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, a procedure that offered a potential treatment option when cancer had spread to her liver.
Colorectal cancer is among the most commonly diagnosed cancers worldwide. In some patients, the disease spreads beyond the colon or rectum to other organs, most commonly the liver.
Piccioli, 39 was diagnosed with stage 4 colorectal cancer, in May 2024 when she went to emergency room for dehydration from a stomach bug. Scans revealed a huge mass near her intestines and liver appeared nodular and later a biopsy confirmed stage 4 colon cancer, meaning the disease had spread beyond the original site. In her case, the cancer had metastasized to the liver, which is a common site for colorectal cancer spread.
Liver metastases occur in a significant proportion of colorectal cancer patients because blood from the intestines flows directly to the liver through the portal vein, providing a pathway for cancer cells to travel and establish new tumors.
She was surprised at the diagnosis since she did not have any of the symptoms like irregular bowel movements, any bleeding or any family history. She started chemotherapy and immunotherapy in California and they referred her to NorthWestern for the possibility of Liver transplant.
Piccioli traveled from California to Chicago to check for the possibility.
“Amy had disease confined to the liver and had responded very well to treatment,” said Zachary Dietch, MD, transplant surgeon at Northwestern Medicine. “For patients with unresectable colorectal liver metastases, chemotherapy alone historically results in a 10% five‑year survival. But in carefully selected patients who undergo liver transplantation, five‑year survival can reach 60% to 80%, and some patients achieve long‑term cure.”
She underwent the transplant in December 2025. The transplant replaced her diseased liver with healthy donor tissue, removing the site where the cancer had spread. Such procedures require careful patient selection, multidisciplinary evaluation, and ongoing monitoring to reduce the risk of cancer recurrence.
Amy blood reports have turned out negative for residual cancer cells, and she is now in remission.
She is expected to stay in Chicago for 3 more months to make complete recovery.
When cancer spreads extensively within the liver and cannot be fully removed surgically, a liver transplant may be considered in carefully selected cases. Northwestern Medicine has been among the centers exploring the use of living donor liver transplantation for colorectal cancer patients with liver-only metastases.
In a living donor transplant, a healthy donor donates a portion of their liver. Because the liver has the ability to regenerate, both the donor’s and recipient’s livers can grow back to near-normal size after surgery.
For Piccioli, a friend volunteered to donate part of her liver, enabling the transplant to proceed.
Following the transplant procedure, Piccioli continued recovery and follow-up care. Living donor liver transplantation involves significant surgical complexity but may offer a potential treatment pathway in selected cases of metastatic colorectal cancer.
Her case highlights how advancements in transplant medicine and collaboration between medical teams and living donors can expand treatment possibilities for some patients with advanced disease.
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