Cancerous kidneys used in transplants to combat donor shortage
Surgeons are using cancerous kidneys to save the lives of desperately ill patients.
And they say that if the practice became more widespread, it would offer a lifeline to people in the late stages of kidney disease, as well as increase the pool of organs available for transplant.
Fewer than half the 7,000 Britons waiting for a kidney each year receive a transplant and several hundred die before a donor becomes available.
Controversial: The cancerous kidneys were transplanted into end-stage renal failure patients that were dependent on dialysis to survive
Researcher Michael Phelan said: 'Transplanting a living donor kidney which has been affected by a renal mass is controversial and considered a high risk.
'However, the ongoing shortage of organs from deceased donors, and the high risk of dying while waiting for a transplant, prompted five donors and recipients to push ahead with surgery.'
Dr Phelan is part of a team that carried out the five operations at the University of Maryland Medical Centre in the U.S. in recent years.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1233852/Kidneys-riddled-cancer-given-patients-combat-donor-shortage.html#ixzz3Fxzcotog
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