Two Transplant Patients Develop Melanoma from Donor

Two Scottish patients who received a kidney transplant developed melanoma from their kidneys, in spite of the fact that the donor was treated for melanoma 16 years earlier and considered to be free of cancer. The two cases were reported in the February 6, 2003, issue of The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).

According to a doctor involved in the transplant, the melanoma cells had been dormant in the kidneys of the donor but flourished when the patients were given medications to suppress their immune systems in order to prevent rejection. One of the patients found to have melanoma died about a year and a half later. The second patient, whose cancer was confined to the kidney, is on dialysis following removal of the transplanted kidney and is now doing well. Previously, the longest interval known between a transplant and donor-caused melanoma was eight years.

The researchers, writing in the New England Journal of Medicine, suggest that nobody who has had melanoma should ever be an organ donor. The US transplant network strongly discourages the use of organs from donors who have a history of melanoma or other cancers. In any case, the primary doctor of an organ donor should be asked about the donor's medical history.