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Transplant Procedure Creates 'Hybrid' Immune System to Combat Rejection

Posted 7 Mar 2012 by Drugs.com

WEDNESDAY, March 7 – Researchers report that they were able to create a kind of hybrid immune system in patients who received kidney transplants, a process that appeared to allow the recipients' bodies to accept a foreign organ instead of trying to reject it. There are caveats. The research is preliminary and only involved a tiny number of patients. Also, the required procedure is expensive and its long-term effects aren't known. But if it works, the process – which involves transferring bone marrow cells from the kidney donor to the patient – could allow organ transplant recipients to avoid a lifetime of taking dozens of pills a day. "It's a huge step forward," said Dr. Suzanne Ildstad, director of the University of Louisville's Institute for Cellular Therapeutics, and co-author of the study published in the March 7 issue of Science Translational Medicine. The immune system's job is ... Read more

Related support groups: Organ Transplant -- Rejection Prophylaxis, Organ Transplant, Organ Transplant -- Rejection Reversal, Rejection Prophylaxis, Rejection Reversal

Live Liver Donation Safer Than Previously Thought

Posted 30 Jan 2012 by Drugs.com

MONDAY, Jan. 30 – People who donate a piece of their liver to someone in need of a transplant can still live a long and healthy life, according to a new study. This is possible because only a small portion is removed from a donor, and the liver is an organ that can regrow quickly, researchers explain. Due to a highly publicized liver donor death in 2002, live liver donation dropped from 500 transplants in the United States each year to just 200 to 300 surgeries. Live liver donation is believed to be more dangerous than it really is, said study leader and transplant surgeon Dr. Dorry Segev. As a result, there is a significant shortage of livers available for the 16,000 people currently in need of a liver transplant. "The donor process is safer than some have previously thought," Segev, director of clinical research in transplant surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of ... Read more

Related support groups: Organ Transplant

Cancer Risk Doubles After Organ Transplant, Study Finds

Posted 1 Nov 2011 by Drugs.com

TUESDAY, Nov. 1 – Organ transplant recipients in the United States double their risk of developing cancer compared to the general population. And that risk is elevated for 32 different types of cancer, according to new research. In any given year, however, the risk of developing cancer after a transplant is just 0.7 percent. And experts say the benefits of transplantation far outweigh such risk. "People need to understand that transplantation is one of the great success stories of medicine. It's a very effective treatment for people with severe organ disease," explained the study's lead author, Dr. Eric Engels, a senior investigator in the infections and epidemiology branch of the division of cancer epidemiology and genetics at the U.S. National Cancer Institute in Rockville, Md. "Our study is saying that this population has a unique pattern of cancer risk. Transplant recipients need ... Read more

Related support groups: Cancer, Organ Transplant

CDC Moves to Make Organ Transplantation Safer

Posted 21 Sep 2011 by Drugs.com

WEDNESDAY, Sept. 21 – More thorough donor screening and more advanced organ testing to help protect transplant patients from infectious diseases are recommended in a draft of an updated organ transplant guideline released Wednesday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The goal of the new guideline is to reduce infections such as HIV (the virus that causes AIDS), hepatitis B virus (HBV), and hepatitis C virus (HCV). Screening is already done for HIV, but HBV and HCV should be added to the screening process, the CDC said. From 2007 to 2010, the CDC was involved in more than 200 investigations of suspected, unexpected transmission of HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C through transplants. In some of the confirmed cases, the transplant recipient died due to the infection. The existing guideline was created in 1994. Other major proposed changes to the guideline include ... Read more

Related support groups: Hepatitis C, Hepatitis B, Organ Transplant

Quitting Smoking Cuts Cancer Risk After Liver Transplant

Posted 31 Mar 2011 by Drugs.com

WEDNESDAY, March 30 – Liver transplant patients who quit smoking are less likely to develop smoking-related cancers, a new study suggests. Spanish researchers reviewed data from hundreds of patients who had their first liver transplant between April 1990 and December 2009. Over the average follow-up period of 7.5 years, patients who quit smoking after their transplant had a lower incidence of smoking-related cancers than those who kept smoking. Smoking-related cancers were identified in 13.5 percent of patients who died during the study period. All in all, 26 patients were diagnosed with 29 smoking-related cancers. The types of cancers looked at in this study were lung, head and neck, esophagus, and kidney and urinary tract (other than prostate) cancers. Some previous studies have suggested that longer duration of, or stronger, immunosuppression treatment may be associated with ... Read more

Related support groups: Smoking, Organ Transplant

Organs From High-Risk Donors Often Shunned, Study Finds

Posted 20 Jan 2011 by Drugs.com

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 19 – Many U.S. transplant surgeons unnecessarily shun organs from high-risk donors instead of trying to develop new safeguards that would protect and inform transplant recipients, a new study finds. About one-third of transplant surgeons in the nation "overreacted" to a 2007 case in which four patients in Chicago contracted HIV after receiving organs from a single donor unknowingly infected with HIV, the only such episode in 20 years, according to the Johns Hopkins University researchers. They surveyed 422 transplant surgeons about their attitudes and use of organs from high-risk donors before and after the Chicago case. High-risk donors include intravenous drug users, men who have sex with men and prostitutes. These groups of people account for nearly 10 percent of organ donations in the United States, and they are tested for HIV and other infections before their ... Read more

Related support groups: Organ Transplant

Infant Organ Donors Could Help Meet Transplant Needs: Study

Posted 7 Jan 2011 by Drugs.com

THURSDAY, Jan. 6 – The organs of about 8 percent of infants who suffer cardiac death in newborn intensive care units (NICUs) would be eligible for donation and could help save the lives of other infants and young children, according to a new study. Children younger than 1 year old account for about 100 of the more than 200,000 people in the United States on an organ transplant waiting list. But currently, infants and young children who need an organ transplant can only receive an organ from an older child or part of an adult organ. In addition to the challenge of fitting a larger organ into an infant's body, demand for adult organs exceeds supply, noted Dr. Richard Parad, a neonatologist in the newborn medicine department at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH), and his colleagues at Children's Hospital Boston and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. "A key motivation behind this study ... Read more

Related support groups: Organ Transplant

Scientists Report Early Success in Growing Mini Liver in Lab

Posted 1 Nov 2010 by Drugs.com

SATURDAY, Oct. 30 – Scientists who created functioning miniature livers say their success is an early, but important, advance in the quest to grow replacement human livers in the laboratory. "We are excited about the possibilities this research represents, but must stress that we're at an early stage and many technical hurdles must be overcome before it could benefit patients," project director Shay Soker, a professor of regenerative medicine at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, said in a facility news release. In the study, the researchers used mild detergent to remove all the cells from animal livers, leaving only the collagen "skeleton" or support structure. Then, the original cells were replaced with two types of human cells: progenitors, which are immature liver cells, and endothelial cells, which line blood vessels. The liver skeleton with the new cells was placed in ... Read more

Related support groups: Organ Transplant

Race Affects Hepatitis C Recurrence After Liver Transplant: Study

Posted 1 Nov 2010 by Drugs.com

SATURDAY, Oct. 30 – Hepatitis C patients who receive a liver from a white donor have significantly more aggressive recurrent hepatitis than those who receive a liver from a black donor, researchers have found. This is especially true for black patients who receive a liver from a white donor, the study authors noted. Researchers from Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit looked at 165 hepatitis C patients who received a liver transplant at the hospital between 2000 and 2006. The patients were given a recurrent hepatitis C virus (HCV) score between 1 and 3. The average recurrent HCV score for patients for each donor/recipient race combination was: White donor/white recipient: 1.54 White donor/black recipient: 1.89 Black donor/white recipient: 1.18 Black donor/black recipient: 1.23 "The data suggests a graft from a white donor is potentially one more important variable in identifying patients ... Read more

Related support groups: Hepatitis C, Organ Transplant

Survival Rates Better for Certain Heart Transplant Patients

Posted 25 Aug 2010 by Drugs.com

TUESDAY, Aug. 24 – Patients who have a heart transplant to correct the most common type of genetic heart disease – hypertrophic cardiomyopathy – have better long-term survival rates than those who have transplants for other heart diseases, a new study finds. In patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), the pumping chamber of the heart, known as the left ventricle, thickens over time. This makes it stiff and less able to relax in order for blood to fill the heart chambers. This serious, potentially fatal condition affects about 500,000 people in the United States. In the new study, published online Aug. 24 in the journal Circulation: Heart Failure, U.S. researchers analyzed data from 26,706 adult heart transplant patients included in the United Network of Organ Sharing Registry. HCM patients account for about 1 percent of all heart transplants performed nationwide. One year ... Read more

Related support groups: Organ Transplant

Longer Antiviral Therapy Reduces Lung Transplant Complications

Posted 14 Jun 2010 by Drugs.com

MONDAY, June 14 – Extended antiviral treatment after a lung transplant may help prevent dangerous complications and organ rejection, a new study from Duke University Medical Center shows. A common cause of infection in lung transplant recipients is cytomegalovirus (CMV), which often causes mild effects but can be life-threatening for transplant patients. Standard preventive therapy involves taking the drug valganciclovir (Valcyte) for up to three months. But even with this treatment, most lung transplant patients develop CMV infections within a year. The Duke study included 136 patients who completed three months of oral valganciclovir and then received either an additional nine months of placebo (66 patients) or an additional nine months of oral valganciclovir (70 patients). Since it was a double-blind, placebo-controlled randomized study, researchers compared two groups of randomly ... Read more

Related support groups: Organ Transplant, Valcyte, Valganciclovir

Experimental Liver Transplant Approach Shows Early Promise

Posted 13 Jun 2010 by Drugs.com

SUNDAY, June 13 – A new approach to liver transplantation is making headway in preliminary work with rats, researchers say. Their work at the Center for Engineering in Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH-CEM) could ultimately point the way toward engineering fresh, functioning and transplantable liver organs out of discarded liver material, the researchers suggest. The research, reported online June 13 in Nature Medicine, is just at the "proof-of-concept" stage, but the team believes it has successfully fashioned a laboratory method to take stripped down structural liver tissue and essentially "reseed" it with newly introduced liver cells. The seed cells are then coaxed to adhere to the host scaffolding, so that they grow and eventually re-establish the organ's complex vascular network. Although the highly complex technique is still far from the point at which it might be ... Read more

Related support groups: Organ Transplant

Organ Transplant Drug Keeps Immune System in Check

Posted 3 Feb 2010 by Drugs.com

WEDNESDAY, Feb. 3 – Adding a new drug to the heavy regimen of immunosuppressant drugs given to organ transplant recipients not only prevented rejection of the new organ but also cut down on the amount of immunosuppressant drugs needed, a new study finds. Researchers hope the experimental drug will eventually preclude the need for any immunosuppressant drugs after an organ transplant. "Current drugs are quite toxic when it comes to long-term survival. There are side effects, and organs suffer because of the drugs," said Dr. Mohanram Narayanan, associate professor of internal medicine at Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine in Temple and chief of clinical transplantation at Scott & White Healthcare. "This is a definite step in the right direction." "The hope is that this will translate into a new treatment to prevent organ rejection in transplant patients," added Agnes ... Read more

Related support groups: Organ Transplant -- Rejection Prophylaxis, Organ Transplant

Heart Transplant Failures More Likely in Poor, Minority Kids

Posted 7 Apr 2009 by Drugs.com

TUESDAY, April 7 – Minority children and those in poorer neighborhoods are more likely to die or need a second heart transplant than white children or those in better-off neighborhoods, according to the results of a U.S. study. The study included 135 children, median age 8.4 years, who received their first heart transplant at Children's Hospital Boston between 1991 and 2005. There were 110 white children, 10 black children, eight Hispanic children and seven children from other racial groups. Overall, 40 children died and six underwent a re-transplant during the study period. Nine of the deaths occurred during the initial hospitalization after the first transplant. Among the children who survived the initial post-transplant hospitalization, there were 31 deaths and six re-transplants over a median of six years. The study found that: Children from low socioeconomic neighborhoods were ... Read more

Related support groups: Organ Transplant

Guidelines Suggested for Heart-Kidney Transplants

Posted 18 Mar 2009 by Drugs.com

WEDNESDAY, March 18 – A set of criteria to help identify people who would benefit from a combined heart and kidney transplant has been developed by U.S. researchers. "In the past, patients with end-stage heart failure having concurrent renal (kidney) disease were not considered candidates for heart transplantation," Dr. Mark J. Russo, of Columbia University Medical Center/New York Presbyterian Hospital, and colleagues noted in the study. "With advances in operative techniques and perioperative (around the time of surgery) management, combined heart and kidney transplantation is offered to select patients in this population." However, there are no standardized guidelines for heart and kidney transplants. The researchers analyzed data from 274 people who had combined heart and kidney transplants between 1995 and 2005. Pre-transplant factors that reduced survival were: peripheral vascular ... Read more

Related support groups: Renal Transplant, Organ Transplant

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Organ Transplant -- Rejection Prophylaxis, Organ Transplant -- Rejection Reversal, Graft-versus-host disease