Transplantation News

The implementation of a kidney allocation system improved equity in access to kidney transplants; however, there were geographic disparities, according to results published in the American Journal of Transplantation.

The 21st century has witnessed several practice-changing advances in managing patients with renal cell carcinoma, including a steadily growing armamentarium that has resulted in improved patient outlook. In an interview with Healio, Brian I. Rini, MD, professor of medicine at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University and staff member at the Cleveland Clinic’s Taussig Cancer Institute, shared his thoughts on these changes and what drives him in research, and offered a glimpse at what he believes the future of renal cell carcinoma treatment will entail.

Patients who were negative for hepatitis C virus and received HCV-infected kidneys and antiviral treatment were clear of the disease and experienced good renal function up to a year after transplantation, according to study results recently published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Organ transplant patients have an increased risk of skin cancer , with a high risk seen in non- w hite organ transplant patients for non-sun exposed areas, according to the presentation a t the American Academ y of Dermatology Summer Meeting.

In most cases, U.S. veterans are less likely to get a kidney transplant compared to individuals with Medicare or private insurance, according to a recently published study.

Kidney transplant with a kidney infected with hepatitis C virus, followed by treatment for the hepatitis C, was effective and reduced costs compared with transplant with an uninfected kidney after hepatitis C treatment, according to new research published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations will include language to clarify that living organ donors can take-time off from work using the Family and Medical Leave Act. The change in language was requested by Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.).

Editor’s Note: The American Society of Transplantation has expressed opposition to the Dialysis Patient Access to Integrated-care, Empowerment, Nephrologists and Treatment Services Demonstration Act, also known as the PATIENTS Demonstration Act, saying it would limit patient access to transplantation. The American Society of Transplantation joins dialysis provider Dialysis Clinic Inc., the American Association of Kidney Patients and the Kidney Care Alliance, which note the act would limit patient choice and favors the country’s two largest for-profit dialysis organizations. Below are comments from the American Society of Transplantation, as well as a response from Franklin W. Maddux, MD, FACP chief medical officer of Fresenius Medical Care North America.

A study by Wainright and colleagues in the American Journal of Transplantation looked for characteristics of kidney donors having end-stage renal disease later in life.

The American Society of Transplantation presented its 2018 Lifetime Achievement Award to Robert Gaston, MD, professor emeritus in the division of nephrology, University of Alabama-Birmingham, for his contributions to AST and the field of transplantation.