Rare voice box transplant helps a cancer patient speak again [Video]

A Massachusetts man has regained his voice after surgeons removed his cancerous larynx and, in a pioneering move, replaced it with a donated one.Transplants of the so-called voice box are extremely rare and normally aren’t an option for people with active cancer. Marty Kedian is only the third person in the U.S. ever to undergo a total larynx transplant — the others, years ago, because of injuries — and one of a handful reported worldwide.Related video above: How do whales sing? Lab experiments suggest their voice boxes have a unique featureSurgeons at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona offered Kedian the transplant as part of a new clinical trial aimed at opening the potentially life-changing operation to more patients, including some with cancer, the most common way to lose a larynx.”People need to keep their voice,” Kedian, 59, told The Associated Press four months after his transplant – still hoarse but …