Why has Egypt, a pioneer of organ transplantation, been reluctant to pass a national organ transplant law for more than three decades? This book analyzes the national debate over organ ...transplantation in Egypt as it has unfolded during a time of major social and political transformation—including mounting dissent against a brutal regime, the privatization of health care, advances in science, the growing gap between rich and poor, and the Islamic revival. Sherine Hamdy recasts bioethics as a necessarily political project as she traces the moral positions of patients in need of new tissues and organs, doctors uncertain about whether transplantation is a “good” medical or religious practice, and Islamic scholars. Her richly narrated study delves into topics including current definitions of brain death, the authority of Islamic fatwas, reports about the mismanagement of toxic waste predisposing the poor to organ failure, the Egyptian black market in organs, and more. Incorporating insights from a range of disciplines, Our Bodies Belong to God sheds new light on contemporary Islamic thought, while challenging the presumed divide between religion and science, and between ethics and politics.
Donor origin cancer (DOC) in transplant recipients may be transmitted with the graft (donor-transmitted cancer DTC) or develop subsequently from the graft (donor-derived cancer DDC).
Recipients with ...DOC between January 1, 2001, and December 31, 2010, were identified from the United Kingdom Transplant Registry and database search at transplantation centers.
Of 30,765 transplants from 14,986 donors, 18 recipients developed DOC from 16 donors (0.06%): 3 were DDC (0.01%) and 15 were DTC (0.05%). Of the 15 DTCs, 6 were renal cell cancer; 5, lung cancer; 2, lymphoma; 1, neuroendocrine cancer; and 1, colon cancer. Recipients with DTC underwent explant/excision (11), chemotherapy (4), and radiotherapy (1). Of 15 recipients, 3 (20%) recipients with DTC died as a direct consequence of cancer. Early DTC (diagnosed ≤6 weeks of transplantation) showed a better outcome (no DTC-related deaths in 11 cases) as opposed to late DTC (DTC-related deaths in 3 of 4 cases). Five-year survival was 83% for kidney recipients with DTC compared with 93% for recipients without DTC (P=0.077). None of the donors resulting in cancer transmission was known to have cancer at donation.
DTC is rare but frequently results in graft loss and death. The risk of cancer transmission cannot be eliminated because, in every case, the presence of cancer was not known at donation. This information will allow informed consent for prospective recipients. Explantation/excision is likely to benefit recipients with localized cancer, but in transplants other than kidney/pancreas, the benefits should be balanced against the risks of retransplantation.
Well-designed randomized controlled trials (RCTs) testing efficacy of post-transplant medication adherence enhancing interventions and clinical outcomes are scarce.
This randomized controlled trial ...enrolled adult heart, liver, and lung transplant recipients who were >1 year post-transplant and on tacrolimus twice daily (convenience sample) (visit 1). After a 3-month run-in period, patients were randomly assigned 1:1 to intervention group (IG) or control group (CG) (visit 2), followed by a 6-month intervention (visits 2-4) and a 6-month adherence follow-up period (visit 5). All patients used electronic monitoring for 15 months for adherence measurement, generating a daily binary adherence score per patient. Post-intervention 5-year clinical event-free survival (mortality or retransplantation) was evaluated. The IG received staged multicomponent tailored behavioral interventions (visits 2-4) building on social cognitive theory and trans-theoretical model (e.g., electronic monitoring feedback, motivational interviewing). The CG received usual care and attended visits 1-5 only. Intention-to-treat analysis used generalized estimating equation modeling and Kaplan-Meier survival analysis.
Of 247 patients, 205 were randomly assigned (103 IG, 102 CG). At baseline, average daily proportions of patients with correct dosing (82.6% IG, 78.4% CG) and timing adherence (75.8% IG, 72.2% CG) were comparable. The IG had a 16% higher dosing adherence post-intervention (95.1% IG, 79.1% CG; p < 0.001), resulting in odds of adherence being 5 times higher in the IG than in the CG (odds ratio 5.17, 95% confidence interval 2.86-9.38). This effect was sustained at end of follow-up (similar results for timing adherence). In the IG, 5-year clinical event-free survival was 82.5% vs 72.5% in the CG (p = 0.18).
Our intervention was efficacious in improving adherence and sustainable. Further research should investigate clinical impact, cost-effectiveness, and scalability.
A record number of 40 829 hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) in 36 469 patients (15 765 allogeneic (43%), 20 704 autologous (57%)) were reported by 656 centers in 47 countries to the 2014 ...survey. Trends include: continued growth in transplant activity, more so in Eastern European countries than in the west; a continued increase in the use of haploidentical family donors (by 25%) and slower growth for unrelated donor HSCT. The use of cord blood as a stem cell source has decreased again in 2014. Main indications for HSCT were leukemias: 11 853 (33%; 96% allogeneic); lymphoid neoplasias; 20 802 (57%; 11% allogeneic); solid tumors; 1458 (4%; 3% allogeneic) and non-malignant disorders; 2203 (6%; 88% allogeneic). Changes in transplant activity include more allogeneic HSCT for AML in CR1, myeloproliferative neoplasm (MPN) and aplastic anemia and decreasing use in CLL; and more autologous HSCT for plasma cell disorders and in particular for amyloidosis. In addition, data on numbers of teams doing alternative donor transplants, allogeneic after autologous HSCT, autologous cord blood transplants are presented.
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