Chicago, IL, May 11: A NASA engineer and mother of two is the first known patient from Houston to receive an innovative double-lung transplant to treat terminal lung cancer. Jodi Graf traveled to Northwestern Medicine in Chicago to participate in a clinical trial known as DREAM, where select patients with advanced lung cancers receive double-lung transplants. Northwestern Medicine is currently the only health system in the country offering this cutting-edge approach for patients with advanced lung cancers who have failed all other treatment options.
“This innovative technique involves putting the patient on full heart and lung bypass, delicately taking both cancer-ridden lungs out at the same time along with the lymph nodes, washing the airways and the chest cavity to clear the cancer, and then putting new lungs in,” said Ankit Bharat, MD, chief of thoracic surgery and executive director of the Northwestern Medicine Canning Thoracic Institute. “These patients can have billions of cancer cells in the lungs, so we must be extremely meticulous to not let a single cell spill into the patient’s chest cavity or blood stream. We believe this technique can help reduce the risk of recurrence, which we learned through our experience with pioneering COVID-19 lung transplants in 2020.”
From breathless to boundless
For nearly three decades, 61-year-old Graf, who is a robotic software developer at NASA, lived her life one breath at a time. In 1997, she began experiencing unexplained shortness of breath. Doctors in Houston initially diagnosed her with asthma, prescribing an inhaler. But instead of improving, her condition worsened.
In 2005, after a bout of pneumonia, doctors identified a more serious condition interstitial lung disease (ILD), which causes scarring of the lungs, making it difficult to breathe. For 10 to 15 years, Graf remained relatively stable until her health began to rapidly decline and she came to rely on supplemental oxygen.
In December 2023, Graf entered a formal lung transplant evaluation with doctors in Houston, but during the testing, they discovered a mass in her lungs. Despite not having a history of smoking, Graf was diagnosed with advanced lung cancer. At most transplant centers around the world, patients with active cancer are no longer eligible for lung transplants. Instead of being listed for a transplant in Houston, Graf underwent radiation treatment while her lung function dropped to 30 percent.
“Basic activities required constant supplemental oxygen – sometimes as much as 10 liters. Just walking from my car to my office at NASA was a feat,” said Graf. “I would Google ‘lung transplant’ constantly, searching for hope. That online search led me to news stories in Chicago about the DREAM Program and when I called Northwestern Medicine, I found my people.”
Last November, Graf arrived at Northwestern Memorial Hospital where she underwent a transplant evaluation and she was listed for a double-lung transplant. Less than 24 hours after being placed on the wait list for new lungs, Graf received the call that a match was found, and her surgery took place on Thanksgiving Day – November 27, 2025.
Breathing freely again
After surgery, Graf walked on a treadmill – without oxygen – for the first time in years. Now she’s walking and breathing freely.
Graf has always loved national parks, but before transplant, high altitudes made many destinations impossible. Now, she’s dreaming big again. She hopes to hike in Yellowstone, explore the Canadian Rockies, and travel with her husband, John, and their two sons, ages 22 and 26, without oxygen tanks for the first time in decades.
“As best we can tell, Jodi is now cancer free and we are hopeful that it stays that way. Her interstitial lung disease is also gone and there’s minimal chance it will reoccur,” said Catherine Myers, MD, who is Graf’s pulmonologist at the Canning Thoracic Institute. “Jodi is doing wonderfully and our hope is that she will be able to live with these new lungs for many years to come.”
Graf is also looking forward to Mother’s Day this year, especially since she didn’t think she would be alive to see it.
“I’m 61 years old and I’m not ready to lose my own mother – let alone have my boys lose me. With my new lungs, I’m so glad that I’ll be there for them a while longer. They’re grown up, but they still need their mom,” said Graf.
“As a new mom myself, I understand that special connection,” said Dr. Myers. “So many patients don’t get a lung transplant for themselves – they get it for their loved ones, for their children, for their spouses. Having the opportunity to help Jodi stay longer with her children is what this is all about – it’s why I love what I do.”
Lung cancer cases on the rise in women and never-smokers
Cancers of the lung are the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States with more people dying of lung cancer than colon, breast and prostate cancers combined, and doctors have noticed a startling new trend.
“On a daily basis, we’re seeing more women and never-smokers being diagnosed with lung cancer,” said Dr. Bharat. “Conventionally, lung cancer has been associated with smoking and older age. While smoking certainly increases your chances of developing lung cancer, we’re seeing an explosion of lung cancer cases in patients who have never smoked or had limited smoking exposure – like Jodi.”
In a study of nearly 1,000 consecutive patients treated for lung cancer at Northwestern Medicine, researchers discovered only 35% would have qualified for screening according to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) screening criteria. The two-thirds of patients who would have been excluded were disproportionately women and never-smokers. Currently, USPSTF recommends annual lung cancer screenings for adults ages 50-80 who have a 20 pack-year smoking history and currently smoke or have quit within the past 15 years – a narrow window that excludes many vulnerable individuals.
Northwestern Medicine researchers recommend expanding the universal age-based screening to 40-85. They estimate this would detect 94% of lung cancers, preventing more than 26,000 extra deaths annually. In response to these findings, Northwestern Medicine has launched the Lung Health Center at the Canning Thoracic Institute to detect lung, heart and bone conditions earlier. For more information or to schedule a screening consultation, call 312.695.1800 and mention the Lung Health Center, or email lunghealthcenter@nm.org.
