Part of a cancer-hit liver was transplanted into a spleen and grown until the liver could be transplanted back in a world first in Bologna, doctors said Wednesday.     The unprecedented operation was carried out in the Emilian capital's Policlinico Sant'Orsola Hospital.

The patient is doing well, doctors said. The original cancer had spread from the colon, they said. The tumour was treated and the liver transplanted. Doctors said they would publish the operation in medical journals.