Domino transplant saves patient suffering from liver cancer

News Medical

Tiffany Schwantes was going to die without a new liver. The 31-year old mother of two suffered from an aggressive form of liver cancer and, because of organ allocation rules, she could not be placed high enough on the liver transplant list to receive a new liver in a timely manner. Surgeons at Houston Methodist Hospital and her oncologist at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center determined that the only way to save her life was a domino transplant.

"This is a rarely performed and complicated procedure that would allow her to receive a new liver from a living donor," said R. Mark Ghobrial, M.D., director of the Center for Liver Disease and Transplantation at Houston Methodist Hospital.

The majority of patients with her type of cancer, cholangiocarcinoma, never receive a transplant, but Schwantes' case was different.

"She was young and her tumor was responding to chemotherapy for a sustained duration," said Milind Javle, M.D., an MD Anderson GI oncologist. "Because of her positive response to treatment I was able to refer her to the Houston Methodist liver transplant team."

Tiffany was on what is called the 'out-of-criteria' list. Her liver was not sick enough for her to receive one from the normal donor pool where recipients are chosen by their degree of illness, said Howard Monsour, M.D., chief of hepatology at Houston Methodist Hospital. "If we would have waited for her liver to deteriorate, her cancer would have spread and she would have never made it."

Meanwhile, 60-year old Vernon Roberson was suffering from amyloidosis, a genetic blood disease that attacks and destroys organs such as the heart, liver, kidneys, etc. He was progressively getting worse and was in need of a heart and liver transplant. When the organs became available this past July, surgeons asked him if he would be okay with donating his liver to Schwantes.
______________________________________________________ 
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To register as a donor TODAY
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www.donateLIFEcalifornia.org | www.doneVIDAcalifornia.org 
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