LOS ANGELES — Amy Piccioli received a living donor liver transplant from her childhood friend Lauren Prior in December 2025 at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago. The 39-year-old became the first person at Northwestern Medicine to receive a living donor transplant for metastatic colon cancer.

Piccioli, a mother of three from Los Angeles, was diagnosed with stage 4 colorectal cancer after visiting an emergency department last year for what she thought was dehydration due to a stomach bug. A CT scan revealed a mass in her colon and multiple lesions in her liver. The presence of cancer lesions in her liver classified her condition as stage 4 colorectal cancer.

"I had no symptoms," said Piccioli, a CPA. "I just went numb — I couldn't believe it. I'm one of those people who's very diligent about my health and very cognizant about changes in my body. So for this to have happened without any signs or symptoms was just shocking to me."

In June 2024, she began undergoing chemotherapy along with an immunotherapy drug. Three months after starting chemotherapy, scans showed that the tumors had shrunk. She underwent surgery to remove a tumor from her colon, but her cancer had spread throughout her liver, making surgical resection of a portion of her liver impossible.

Northwestern Medicine in Chicago offers a liver transplantation program specifically for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer. "When liver metastasis is noted, our medical oncologists, along with our transplant surgeons begin to make care pathways tailored to the patient," said Dr. Satish Nadig, transplant surgeon and director of Northwestern Medicine Comprehensive Transplant Center.

"Response to chemotherapy is a critical gatekeeper for liver transplantation in colorectal liver metastases," Nadig said. "Demonstrated disease control or response is usually required, as it identifies patients whose tumor biology (less aggressive and not spreading quickly) is favorable enough to justify a transplant."

As of three months after her transplant, Piccioli had no evidence of disease and reported feeling completely normal. In carefully selected patients, the five-year survival rate after liver transplantation for colorectal liver metastases can be 60% to 80%.