First lab-grown windpipe saves cancer patient

The world's first lab-made windpipe (pictured), created from a patient's own stem cells, was successfully transplanted at Sweden's Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm on June 9, 2011. The patient, a 36-year-old man from Eritrea, had late stage tracheal cancer that had almost fully blocked his windpipe. With no suitable donor windpipes available, this synthetic windpipe was his only option, according to the hospital.

Credit: UCL