Latest kidney transplant Stories

WASHINGTON, July 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The ability of blood tests to precisely measure very low doses of anti-rejection drugs in kidney transplant patients may make a significant difference in assuring long-term viability and survival, according to research presented today at the American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC) annual meeting. The current thinking in transplant medicine favors reducing doses of tacrolimus and other immune-suppressive drugs as much as possible after...

Quark Pharmaceuticals has announced that the FDA has approved the company's investigational new drug application for its siRNA drug candidate, DGFi, in kidney transplantation. The company expects its Phase I/II clinical study for prevention or treatment of delayed graft function (DGF) in kidney transplant patients to begin in the second half of 2008. The Phase I/II will be a multi center study in which the safety and tolerability of escalating doses of DGFi by a single IV injection in renal...

FREMONT, Calif., June 25 /PRNewswire/ -- Quark Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the Company's Investigational New Drug (IND) application for its siRNA drug candidate, DGFi, in kidney transplantation. The Company expects its Phase I/II clinical study for prevention/treatment of Delayed Graft Function (DGF) in kidney transplant patients to begin in the second half of 2008. DGFi is Quark's second product candidate to enter...

By HELEN RAE ANURSING student who underwent a successful kidney transplant as a child proved she was an inspiration for young transplant patients all over the world. Rachael Johnson, 21, from Annfield Plain, Durham, was born with Jeune's Syndrome and had a kidney transplant when she was just seven years old. She is now studying BSc Nursing Studies at Northumbria University's School of Health, Community and Education Studies and has just returned from Detroit in Michigan. Rachael...

People who receive a kidney transplant are nearly four times more likely than the general population to develop melanoma, a rare but deadly form of skin cancer, according to a study led by Christopher Hollenbeak, Ph.D., associate professor, Departments of Surgery and Health Evaluation Sciences, Penn State College of Medicine, Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. The study, to be published in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society (Nov.1, 2005 issue), indicates...

By Will Boggs, MD NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People who've undergone a kidney transplant have an increased risk of developing melanoma, according to a new report. "There is evidence from previous studies that the immunosuppression regimen (used after a kidney transplant) affects the risk of melanoma," Dr. Christopher S. Hollenbeak told Reuters Health. "We are currently working to identify specific regimens in the United States Renal Data System (USRDS) data in order to determine...

In an international clinical trial, a new drug that selectively blocks immune responses has proved as effective in preventing acute kidney transplant rejection as cyclosporine, the standard anti-rejection treatment. Patients who took the experimental drug, a co-stimulatory blocker called belatacept (LEA29Y), also had better kidney function and experienced less of the toxic side effects associated with standard anti-rejection drugs, including kidney damage, high blood pressure and high...