[ad_1]
Four people have developed breast cancer years after receiving organs from the same donor in an "extremely rare" case, according to new research.
A 53-year-old organ donor died of a stroke in 2007. The kidneys, lungs, liver and heart of the donor were administered to four patients after extensive testing. The tests, performed after the donor's death, found no evidence of breast cancer.
However, of the four patients, all Europeans, three died of breast cancer.
A remaining patient has gone through breast cancer treatments, preventing the disease from metastasizing to the rest of the body. The patient had the transplanted kidney removed and then underwent chemotherapy, and also stopped taking an immunosuppressive drug, which transplant patients need so that the body does not reject the new organ.
One of the authors of the study, Dr. Frederike Bemelman, professor of nephrology at the University of Amsterdam, had treated the surviving patient and wrote in the journal that he was essential to remove the transplanted organ.
"This extraordinary case highlights the often fatal consequences of donor-derived breast cancer and suggests that removal of the donor's organ and the restoration of immunity may induce complete remission."
ASSOCIATED VIDEO: Four brothers with the same deadly bone marrow disease fight for their lives
However, the authors of the research pointed out that this was extremely unusual and that transplant patients are not at risk.
Bemelman said it was the first time she saw a transplant cause cancer after 20 years working in transplant research.
"There is always a small risk," she wrote in the newspaper, according to CNN. "Even if you undergo a simple gallbladder procedure, you also have a small chance that something will happen to you during the procedure."
But that should not stop people from getting transplants, she says.
"The benefits of organ transplantation far outweigh these small risks," said Bemelman. "People should not worry."
Source link
