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Kidney transplant: drug-free recovery possibility
Kidney transplants may become possible without the need for a lifetime of immunosuppressant drugs, studies published today suggest.
Currently, all kidney transplants require the lifelong use of powerful drugs to stop the body rejecting the transplanted organ. These drugs have a number of serious side effects, including an increased risk of developing cancer.
However, two US studies using two different techniques have shown positive results for patients undergoing kidney transplants, enabling recovery without drug dependency for the first time.
At Stanford University, doctors used irradiation and antibody treatments to 'tweak' one patient's immune system. The patient has been in drug-free recovery for two years.
At Massachusetts General Hospital, five patients had their bone marrow partially destroyed by radiotherapy. They then received bone marrow grafts from the kidney donor before the kidney transplant itself. Although one patient rejected the transplanted organ, four of the five are reported to be living successfully without drugs.
Both studies are published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Although immunosuppressant drug dosages have decreased by 50% in the UK in the last five years, side-effects still pose a risk to patients. UK kidney specialists have welcomed the American research, but have stressed that a lack of donors remains the major barrier to kidney surgery.
Speaking to BBC News, British renal transplant specialist Robert Higgins said: 'In all parts of the world, the main problem is the shortage of organs.'
Prime minister Gordon Brown is supporting proposals for automatic inclusion on the organ donor list, with the burden on individuals to 'opt out', rather than the current opt-in system.
Category: Healthcare
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