UNOS DonateLife

February 9, 2001

Organ Donors With History of Cancer Analyzed

An analysis of 650 organ transplants from donors with a past history of cancer indicates that selective use of such donors may minimize the risk of cancer transmission and permit expansion of the pool of potential organ donors. This was the conclusion of researchers from the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) and Massachusetts General Hospital in an article published in the Dec. 27 issue of the journal Transplantation.

The study, the first to report on data from the UNOS Transplant Tumor Registry, identified 257 donors with a past history of cancer for U.S. transplants occurring between April 1, 1994 and December 31, 1996. Of those donors, 85 percent had skin, brain or genitourinary tumors. With the exception of donors with a history of skin or central nervous system tumors, 71.5 percent of the donors had a cancer-free interval of greater than five years.

While 28 of the recipients of organs from these donors subsequently developed tumors during a mean follow-up period of 45 months, none developed a donor-derived cancer. The researchers concluded that the risks of cancer transmission from donors with a history of non-melanoma skin cancer and selected cancers of the central nervous system appear to be small. They further concluded that under certain circumstances there may be acceptable risk for donors with a history of other tumors, particularly if the donor has a long cancer-free interval prior to organ donation.

The authors of the study were H. Myron Kauffman, M.D., and Maureen A. McBride, Ph.D., of UNOS, and Francis L. Delmonico, M.D., of Massachusetts General Hospital. The study was supported in part by a grant from the American Cancer Society and through UNOS' contract with the Health Resources and Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.