Her Stage IV cancer had no symptoms. Innovative surgery saved her life.
When Amy Piccoli’s son brought home a stomach bug in May 2024, she thought she knew her plight. The Los Angeles mother of three was used to seasonal illnesses and 24-hour viruses.
As expected, Piccoli fell ill. But he soon became “really dehydrated” and ended up in the emergency room. Doctors performed a CT scan as part of their examination. The test showed spots on his liver and a mass in his colon. A follow-up MRI led to a biopsy. Piccoli said he “kind of blacked out” when he got the results.
“My doctor called me and said, ‘We think the spots on the liver are cancer spreading from the colon,'” Piccoli, 39, said. “I was in complete shock. I had no symptoms… I have no family history of any type of cancer.”
Piccoli’s IV. The diagnosis of stage 1 colon cancer was confirmed on the Friday before Memorial Day. spent the long weekend doom scroll on Google. The statistics she saw left her and her husband “tearful and horrified.”
“I was completely in shock, panicked and scared,” Piccoli said. “My whole life I’ve been a very diligent person about going to the doctor and noticing changes in my body… I did everything. So it was incomprehensible to me that I didn’t catch this at an earlier stage.”
An “extremely rare” diagnosis
D., a gastroenterologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and co-director of the hospital’s Center for Young-Onset Colorectal and Gastrointestinal Cancers. In most cases, colon cancer has symptoms such as gastrointestinal upset, blood in the stool and unexplained weight loss, Robin Mendelsohn said.
A diagnosis of late-stage colorectal cancer with no symptoms is “extremely rare,” Mendelsohn said, noting that milder warning signs such as fatigue may not be recognized as cancer symptoms.
Amy Piccoli is undergoing chemotherapy. / Credit: Amy Piccoli
Piccoli began treatment in June 2024 after his diagnosis. Genetic tests showed that immunotherapy could help treat his tumors, so it was added the following month. Piccoli said the combination of the two drugs “worked incredibly well” and led to “significant shrinkage” of tumors. This allowed surgeons to remove the tumor from his colon.
Still it wasn’t enough. The tumors in his liver could not be removed by surgery. Piccoli asked his oncologist about something he’d seen online: liver transplants for patients like him.
A treatment that “turns hospice into hope”
Dr., a transplant surgeon at Northwestern Medicine. According to Zachary Dietch, continuing to treat the tumors in his liver with chemotherapy alone would leave Piccoli with only around a 10% chance of surviving beyond five years. But the latest data from Europe suggests Dr. According to Satish Nadig, some patients who had the cancerous part of their colon removed and a liver transplant showed that their five-year survival rate could be as high as 80%.
The procedure has strict requirements, such as ensuring patients have a low risk of recurrence and confirmation that there is no disease other than cancer in the liver. Only a minority of patients will fit these descriptors, and doctors must also consider the characteristics of each tumor, Mendelsohn said. But for patients who qualify, the procedure “turns the hospital into hope,” Nadig said.
Because the treatment is so new, only a few centers in the United States offer it. Piccoli’s oncologist referred him to the program at Northwestern directed by Nadig. In September 2025, he traveled to Chicago for an evaluation that found him to be a suitable candidate for a transplant from a living donor. More than a dozen friends and family filled out an application to see if they would be a good fit for Piccoli. A family friend, Lauren Prior, was chosen as the donor. In December 2025, Piccoli went to Chicago again for the operation.
Amy Piccoli and Lauren Prior in summer 2025. / Credit: Amy Piccoli
“I was very excited about the surgery. I was excited about the transplant. I wasn’t afraid of such a major surgery,” Piccoli said. “I knew I would survive cancer. For me, it felt like the end of a long, terrifying, exhausting experience, and I wanted to put it aside.”
“A new breath to life”
Dietch said Prior and Piccoli’s surgeries went smoothly. After the transplant, Piccoli stayed in Chicago for three months. During this time, he became accustomed to anti-rejection medications and had frequent scans to make sure his disease did not return. Piccoli said it was difficult being away from her family for so long, but visits every few weeks helped.
“It was tough, it was tough for everyone, but at the end of the day, I did this to give my kids a long life,” Piccoli said. “It felt really good to get confirmation that everything I had been through was worth it.”
Amy Piccoli after transplant surgery. / Credit: Amy Piccoli
Piccoli left Chicago at the end of March. Nadig said he will continue regular screenings for the next five years. The goal is to detect and treat any cancer that can be diagnosed early. The risk of recurrence is low in most qualified patients, and if it does occur, it only occurs in a small area that can be treated locally, Nadig said.
“This is no longer a death sentence,” Nadig said.
Going for tests can be nerve-wracking, Piccoli said. But so far everything was clear. He plans to spend the summer with his children, who are now four, seven and eight years old.
“Cancer is a terrible thing, but it’s a blessing in that it gives you a new perspective on life,” Piccoli said. he said. “I’m excited to live my life with this new perspective, spend time with my kids, not have to go through chemo, have a really fun summer with them, not have as many doctor appointments, and get back to living with this new perspective and a new perspective on life.”
