Brooke Zepp, a 63-year-old woman from South Florida was diagnosed last May with leiomyosarcoma, a rare cancerous tumor deep inside her abdomen that had wrapped itself around her aorta and other arteries that supply blood to vital organs such as the stomach, intestines and spleen. Therefore, the woman was given up to six more months to live.

Surgery was not an option for her, according to her physicians, because the location of the cancerous tumor was so deep that they would not be able to get to it to remove it without damaging organs. So, she desperately tried to go through chemotherapy, as well as radiation, but neither worked.

The salvation came from the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Medical Center, where surgeon at The Transplant Institute performed what’s believed to be the first operation of its kind.

The organ transplant specialist had to remove Zepp’s stomach, pancreas, spleen, liver and small and large intestines in order to reach the cancerous tumor. The organs were chilled and preserved outside Zepp’s body during a painstaking 15-hour operation.

After the tumor, which was about 2 inches (5 cm) in diameter and wrapped around Zepp’s aorta and the base of two other arteries, was removed, the organs were re-implanted in their normal position.

“This is a very brand new and unique approach. We have done a multi-organ transplant before, but not in the same person. We have removed multiple organs and then put them back in another person. It is very risky and definitely one of the most challenging surgeries of my career,” Tomoaki Kato MD, the transplant surgeon who led the operation, said Monday, during a news conference at the University of Miami/ Jackson Medical Center in Florida, WebMD reports.

The patient is doing “great. She is considered cured at this point, but only time will prove its long-term efficacy,” Kato added.

The most difficult part of the surgery was putting the organs back, not the removal of the cancerous tumor, as most people would believe, according to Kato. “After removing the organs, we have to make sure that we will be able to put them back in a good condition.”

The new surgery is a breakthrough, as it may, one day, benefit people with other tumors that are located in the same area.

Zepp also reconfirmed that she is feeling good after the surgery. “I want the rest of the world to know that inoperable cancers can be operated on. Different cancer centers have different training and their own vision, and they don’t think in the terms that a transplant surgeon would. I feel like I’m coming through the tunnel and I have a whole life,” she was quoted by Forbes.