(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Many patients awaiting a kidney transplant find
themselves on dialysis for years. About one-third of kidney failure patients
have high levels of "anti-donor" antibodies – a condition that makes it almost
impossible for a patient's body to accept a donor organ.
Clinical trials have shown high-dose intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) therapy
can "desensitize" patients with high levels of anti-donor antibodies, increasing
their chances of successful transplantation. A new combination therapy using
IVIG and rituzimab -- an antibody engineered to bind to a specific protein --
may offer superior results to IVIG alone.
Results of a new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine reveal
the combination therapy improved transplant rates to 80 percent of treated
patients. The one-year patient and graft survival rates were 100 percent and 94
percent, respectively.
Study authors say especially for patients awaiting a deceased-donor transplant,
the combination therapy appears to offer an alternative to ongoing dialysis. The
results also reveal the combination therapy is less costly than IVIG alone, but
authors say further multi-center trials are needed to confirm their findings.
SOURCE: New England Journal of Medicine, 2008
