UTAH (KUTV) — A 39-year-old Utah mom of 5 who has by no means smoked is getting ready for a uncommon double-lung transplant after Stage 4 lung most cancers left her depending on oxygen and with few remedy choices remaining.
One yr in the past, Kelsey Flake was working a half marathon. Now, based on her household, she can’t stroll throughout a room with out oxygen.
“Kelsey has by no means smoked a cigarette in her life. At the moment, she has Stage 4 lung most cancers,” her brother, John, wrote in a GoFundMe created to assist the household via the following yr.
Flake was born with a uncommon genetic variant that her household says predisposes her to lung injury and lung most cancers. 4 of her six siblings additionally carry the variant.
She was identified with a uncommon type of lung most cancers in 2024 and underwent chemotherapy, surgical procedure and immunotherapy. For a time, her household mentioned scans confirmed no proof of lively illness.
Then the most cancers returned in each lungs in January.
“Because the most cancers returned in January, Kelsey and her care staff have fought for each doable choice to gradual it down,” her brother wrote. “She has been via one other spherical of aggressive remedy, however the most cancers has continued to progress.”
Her household says Flake now has 41% lung capability and requires oxygen full time.
Earlier than getting sick, Flake was a Division I school swimmer and triathlete. She and her husband, Jacob, constructed an actual property enterprise whereas elevating their 5 kids, Hannah, 15, Elizabeth, 13, Oliver, 11, Chloe, 8, and Grant, 6.
As remedy choices dwindled, the household discovered a program in Chicago providing one thing that traditionally has not been accessible to most sufferers with superior lung most cancers: a double-lung transplant.
The Northwestern Medicine DREAM Program, brief for Double Lung Transplant Registry Aimed for Lung-limited Malignancies, is an observational examine providing double-lung transplantation to sure sufferers whose most cancers is confined to their lungs and is now not responding to different therapies. Northwestern says sufferers with most cancers traditionally haven’t been eligible for lung transplantation due to considerations that the most cancers may return or unfold. The Northwestern Drugs Canning Thoracic Institute DREAM Program | Northwestern Drugs
Flake’s household says she accomplished the intensive analysis course of and is scheduled to start the transplant course of Tuesday at Northwestern Drugs.
Surgeons are anticipated to take away not less than one in every of her lungs in the course of the first stage. If that process goes as deliberate, her household says she shall be formally listed for donor lungs and stay at Northwestern whereas ready for a match. As soon as donor lungs turn into accessible, she would endure one other surgical procedure to obtain them.
The method represents a major shift in how medical doctors are treating a extremely chosen group of sufferers with superior lung most cancers.
A Northwestern Medicine study revealed July 8 in JAMA examined 98 sufferers with medically refractory, lung-limited Stage 4 non-small cell lung most cancers. Seventeen acquired lung transplants, whereas 81 who met medical eligibility necessities however didn’t obtain transplants due to nonbiological boundaries continued with medical remedy.
Researchers reported an estimated one-year general survival fee of 100% among the many 17 transplant recipients, in contrast with 40.8% among the many sufferers who acquired medical administration alone. At prolonged follow-up via Jan. 31, 2026, two of the transplant recipients had died. Researchers cautioned that longer-term follow-up and quality-of-life assessments are nonetheless wanted.
“This work modifications what we will think about for a extremely chosen group of sufferers who had been beforehand thought of past the attain of curative-intent intervention,” Dr. Ankit Bharat, chief of thoracic surgical procedure and director of Northwestern’s Canning Thoracic Institute, mentioned when the analysis was launched.
Bharat burdened that the process isn’t an choice for everybody with superior lung most cancers.
“We’re not saying lung transplant is acceptable for each affected person with stage IV lung most cancers,” Bharat mentioned. “We’re saying that when the most cancers is rigorously confirmed to be confined to the lungs, when commonplace therapies have been exhausted, and when the lungs themselves have turn into the life-limiting organ, transplantation might supply a brand new path ahead.”
Northwestern says its DREAM Program is meant for sufferers whose lung most cancers isn’t responding to remedy and who haven’t any different remedy choices, together with some sufferers beforehand cured of most cancers who later develop lung failure however don’t qualify beneath conventional transplant standards.
For the Flake household, that new path additionally means quickly uprooting their lives.
Jacob plans to stay along with his spouse in Chicago all through the transplant and restoration. Their 5 kids will initially keep in Utah with their grandparents, based on the household. The objective is to reunite everybody in Chicago round Christmas or New Yr’s, homeschool the youngsters there, and stay collectively till Flake is cleared to return to Utah, doubtlessly subsequent August.
Each Kelsey and Jacob are self-employed in actual property, and the household expects their capacity to work to be considerably lowered whereas residing in Chicago.
A GoFundMe has been established to assist with housing, transportation, meals, journey between Utah and Chicago, youngster care and different residing bills in the course of the household’s relocation. The household says a separate nonprofit medical fundraiser has been established to cowl transplant-related medical prices, medicines, and medically mandatory journey.
“This GoFundMe is meant to assist carry that burden so Kelsey and Jacob can focus their vitality the place it belongs: on Kelsey’s transplant, her restoration, and conserving their household collectively,” John wrote.
For a girl who was competing in endurance occasions only a yr in the past, the transplant represents an opportunity at one thing much more private than one other end line.
“Thanks for serving to give Kelsey the prospect for extra time with the folks she loves most,” her brother wrote.
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