Dies of cancer during the transplant of a smoker [Internacional] – 11/3/2018

Paris, France.- A cystic fibrosis patient developed cancer shortly after receiving a lung transplant from a smoker in France, according to a study published in the journal Lung Cancer, which warns against the risk of transplantation of such organs.

The patient was treated since childhood with cystic fibrosis. After the rapid deterioration of their respiratory functions, characteristic of this disease, the doctors decided in November 2015 to carry out a lung transplant.

"According to the database of donors, the transplanted lungs belong to a 57-year-old woman who had been smoking a pack of cigarettes every day for 30 years," according to a study conducted by medical oncologists at the University Hospital of Montpellier ( South).

The study indicates that tests performed at the time of brain death of the donor did not reveal any abnormalities.

In June 2017, the sick patient was admitted to the thoracic oncology unit of the aforementioned hospital. Two months later, he died of lung cancer without trying to practice any therapy.

According to the study, the symptoms correspond to cancer caused by smoking.

"The short time elapsed between lung transplantation and the onset of the first radiological abnormality suggests that carcinogenesis began in the donor's life," add the authors of the study. A cancer whose growth would have been greatly accelerated by the immunosuppressive treatments received by the patient to avoid rejection of her new lungs.

According to Dr. Jean-Louis Pujol and colleagues, "given the relatively long latency of lung cancer, we suggest that transplants of smoker (or recently quit) donors be treated with caution."