It was the worst diagnosis of his life. A Massachusetts grandfather was told his cancer battle was lost. Then, one doctor's inspired idea turned this near tragedy into an amazing story of survival. "I was playing with the grandchild, and I thought, 'I'm gonna pull the muscle on my side because I was a little tender,'" said Paul Parent, of Dracut. It seemed like a pretty ordinary pain. But a routine doctor's visit led to devastating news. "I found out it was cancer. Cancer of the liver," Parent said. Not just cancer — a nearly five-pound tumor in his liver and bile duct. Paul and his wife, Susan, were in shock. "He had no chronic illnesses," Susan Parent said. " He was on no medication. This blindsided us. It came out of nowhere."That was December 2020. Chemotherapy came next, with the hopes of eventually removing the tumor. But then more heartbreak: doctors said it was inoperable. "They said there was nothing they could do at this point," Paul Parent said. The chemo had failed to shrink the tumor. So, it was just too risky to remove it. The only option was to make Paul comfortable. "We were just hoping to sustain him for as long as we could," Susan Parent said. "It wasn't a good diagnosis."That's when Dr. Martin Hertl, a liver transplant specialist at Tufts Medical Center, entered the picture, and suddenly everything changed. Hertl, who is the chief of abdominal transplant and hepatobiliary surgery at Tufts, heard about Paul's case at a conference and thought of a new treatment plan incorporating something you might not know about the liver: it's the only organ in the body that can actually regenerate. "It will recognize there's a lot of the liver missing, and the healthy part that's remaining has to make up for it," Hertl said. Working with Dr. Gregg Franco, who was already on Paul's case during his treatment at Lowell General Hospital, Hertl turned to a procedure called double vein embolization. It basically stopped the blood flow to the area of the liver with the tumor. That would allow the remaining, healthy portion of the liver to regrow itself, eventually taking over the organ's entire function. Then, they could move in and safely remove the cancer. "In one week, you really have massive regeneration of the healthy liver, and you can do the surgery after one week, which is the novelty here," Hertl said. It was the first time that procedure had ever been done at Tufts Medical Center — and it worked. "Being able to help Paul, being able to bring in a new technique to the hospital, to the system, being able to work with Dr. Hertl and kind of increasing the possibility of treating patients like this — it's a great thing," Franco said. Now, after thinking all hope was lost, Paul and his wife are looking forward to his next chapter. "I feel good, I feel healthy," he said. "I think I can go on for a while, you know, keeping it this way."
It was the worst diagnosis of his life. A Massachusetts grandfather was told his cancer battle was lost. Then, one doctor's inspired idea turned this near tragedy into an amazing story of survival.
"I was playing with the grandchild, and I thought, 'I'm gonna pull the muscle on my side because I was a little tender,'" said Paul Parent, of Dracut.
It seemed like a pretty ordinary pain. But a routine doctor's visit led to devastating news.
"I found out it was cancer. Cancer of the liver," Parent said.
Not just cancer — a nearly five-pound tumor in his liver and bile duct. Paul and his wife, Susan, were in shock.
"He had no chronic illnesses," Susan Parent said. " He was on no medication. This blindsided us. It came out of nowhere."
That was December 2020. Chemotherapy came next, with the hopes of eventually removing the tumor. But then more heartbreak: doctors said it was inoperable.
"They said there was nothing they could do at this point," Paul Parent said.
The chemo had failed to shrink the tumor. So, it was just too risky to remove it. The only option was to make Paul comfortable.
"We were just hoping to sustain him for as long as we could," Susan Parent said. "It wasn't a good diagnosis."
That's when Dr. Martin Hertl, a liver transplant specialist at Tufts Medical Center, entered the picture, and suddenly everything changed.
Hertl, who is the chief of abdominal transplant and hepatobiliary surgery at Tufts, heard about Paul's case at a conference and thought of a new treatment plan incorporating something you might not know about the liver: it's the only organ in the body that can actually regenerate.
"It will recognize there's a lot of the liver missing, and the healthy part that's remaining has to make up for it," Hertl said.
Working with Dr. Gregg Franco, who was already on Paul's case during his treatment at Lowell General Hospital, Hertl turned to a procedure called double vein embolization. It basically stopped the blood flow to the area of the liver with the tumor. That would allow the remaining, healthy portion of the liver to regrow itself, eventually taking over the organ's entire function. Then, they could move in and safely remove the cancer.
"In one week, you really have massive regeneration of the healthy liver, and you can do the surgery after one week, which is the novelty here," Hertl said.
It was the first time that procedure had ever been done at Tufts Medical Center — and it worked.
"Being able to help Paul, being able to bring in a new technique to the hospital, to the system, being able to work with Dr. Hertl and kind of increasing the possibility of treating patients like this — it's a great thing," Franco said.
Now, after thinking all hope was lost, Paul and his wife are looking forward to his next chapter.
"I feel good, I feel healthy," he said. "I think I can go on for a while, you know, keeping it this way."
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October 18, 2023 at 06:41AM
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Mass. man's grim diagnosis turns into a story of survival thanks to organ's superpower - WCVB Boston
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