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Background |
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Transplantation
Advances in transplantation technology over the past
thirty years have led to high survival rates and improved quality of
life for patients with a great variety of serious medical conditions.
The success of these procedures has led to a situation where demand for
organ transplants greatly exceeds the supply of appropriate organs. On
average, patients wait over three years for kidney and liver
transplants.
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UNITED STATES
TRANSPLANTS AND WAITING LIST
(Year
Ending June 30, 2002) |
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Kidney |
Liver |
Pancreas |
Kidney &
Pancreas |
Heart |
Lung |
All |
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Transplants
(Year ending 6/30/ 2002) |
14,385 |
5,261 |
541 |
869 |
2,155 |
1,076 |
24,422 |
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Patients on
Waitlist
(as of
6/30/2002) |
50,240 |
17,379 |
1,151 |
2,485 |
4,097 |
3,757 |
79,512 |
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One-Year
Survival |
95% |
86% |
97% |
95% |
85% |
77% |
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Source:
Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients,
under contract with Health Resources and Services
Administration (HRSA). Statistics are based on data available
from the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network as of
October 31, 2002. |
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Immunosuppressive Drugs
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The problem of immune rejection
has plagued scientists since the first transplant experiments. Ideally,
donor and recipient tissues are matched as well as possible and
immunosuppressive drugs are used in order to overcome immune rejection.
However, finding good tissue matches is not always possible and
strategies that suppress the immune system expose patients to secondary
disease.
The introduction of cyclosprorine and other immunosuppressive drugs to
reduce transplant rejection and improvements in surgical techniques are
largely responsible for the improvement in survival rates. Still graft
rejection and complications from immunosuppressive drugs remain serious
problems. The use of immunosuppressive drugs leaves the transplant
recipient exposed to disease and at much greater risk of developing
cancer. Transplantation medicine would be much more popular as a
strategy in treating many diseases if organs were more readily available
and the need to use immunosuppressive drugs was eliminated.
This great need has
initiated a race to identify
alternative sources
of tissues that would serve as organ replacement and have low
immunogenic potential. |
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