(October 13, 2008)—Experts are working on ways to outwit the immune systems of the nearly one in three patients who need kidney transplants, but may never get one because their bodies are abnormally primed to reject donated organs.
The approach often involves using kidneys donated by living donors, considered the optimal kind.
One promising treatment involves an unusual combination of blood cleansing and a cancer drug, which allowed Cynthia Preloh of Virginia to receive a kidney from her son that her body otherwise would have destroyed.
More than 77,000 people are on the national waiting list to receive kidneys from deceased donors.
The wait can stretch four to five years, and more than 4,000 patients die on the waiting list each year.
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