Breakthroughs Today

LAST month, we presented here the general picture of kidney transplantation based on the multicenter study conducted by Behzad Einollahi and colleagues as reported in the Journal of Cancer (June 2012).   This week you will know, in more detail, which immunosuppressant drugs have been causing it and briefly how. The study noted that the risk of developing malignancy in organ transplants is three-four times greater than general population.   Before 2000, patients received a two-drug maintenance regimen consisting of prednisone and cyclosporine or azathioprine (AZA); or, a triple therapy with cyclosporine, prednisone and AZA. Afterward, most patients received not just cyclosporine and prednisone but mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) as well. Today, immunosuppressive therapy is a three-drug therapy using cyclosporine/sirolimus, MMF/AZA and steroids.   The Einollahi study noted that more than half of the patients (61.3 percent) received AZA when they developed cancer. The remaining

Sometimes some hopes can be as dangerous as well. And kidney transplantation can be one of those until medical science and technology can overcome the gap.   EVEN an ending life can be prolonged, given the right science, the right technology and certainly the right kind of prayer.   During the end-stage of renal disease (the point at which the condition of a kidney is a few steps toward failure) life can still be prolonged somehow. The best treatment for this condition is kidney replacement surgery. If a kidney is giving up, then replacing it can be wiser.   A serious risk with kidney replacement though, is with the body’s reaction to the donated kidney that can often come from sources not genetically related to the patient.   In the 24 years of kidney replacement history in Iran (1984-2008), 87.5 percent of kidneys used, came from living individuals not related to the patient.   Physicians who manage patients with kidney transplant use immunosuppressive drugs.