Doctors report transplant breakthrough

Source: AP

LOS ANGELES - In what's being called a major advance in organ transplants, doctors say they have developed a technique that could free many patients from having to take anti-rejection drugs for the rest of their lives.

The treatment involved weakening the patient's immune system, then giving the recipient bone marrow from the person who donated the organ. In one experiment, four of five kidney recipients were off immune-suppressing medicines up to five years later.

"There's reason to hope these patients will be off drugs for the rest of their lives," said Dr. David Sachs of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, who led the research published in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.

Since the world's first transplant more than 50 years ago, scientists have searched for ways to trick the body to accept a foreign organ as its own. Immune-suppressing drugs that prevent organ rejection came into wide use in the 1980s. But they raise the risk of cancer, kidney failure and many other problems. And they have unpleasant side effects such as excessive hair growth, bloating and tremors.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080123/ap_on_he_me/transplant_breakthrough

My dad had two heart translpants, starting about 27 years ago (he was #1 and #6 at UCLA; the need for a second was because of rejection problems.) Basically, anti-rejection medicines suppress the body's immune system to prevent it from attacking the foreign tissue. As a result of the meds, my dad faces all of the problems of someone with Lupus or advanced HIV. It is not pretty.

to treat both acute rejection and the autoimmune diseases like lupus. Plus, some cancer drugs have been found to be useful in both areas of medicine.

If your dad is 27 years out from a second transplant, he's doing beautifully.

Transplant medicine is one area where they're doing a great deal of research and coming up with solutions that go far beyond transplant patients.

Success with some forms of arthritis and diabetes would have a HUGE impact.

Let it be soon.

When I read the headline, I though that a surgeon had implanted a functional brain into the pResident.

But still thats very good news, talk about a win for everyone, lower medical costs and better quality of life.

One has to worry about some cases of Graft-vs-Host reactions with large enough infusions.