Doctors said that the tumour cells were too tiny to detect, which meant the liver was declared safe for transfer, but ‘escaped’ and infected the patient and led to his death
Doctors in the case said that the tumour cells escaped the transplanted liver
A 41-year-old man from California tragically died less than a year after undergoing a life saving liver transplant. The unnamed patient suffered from chronic liver disease and received a transplant in 2001 from a deceased donor. However, the donor was later discovered to have had undetected lung cancer.
The deadly condition was passed on from the donor to the recipient. Despite doctors performing a desperate second transplant in a bid to rid him of the cancer, the man ultimately succumbed to the very same disease that claimed the donor’s life, just one year after the transplant.
Doctors involved in the case, wrote in the report: “Clearly, tumour cells had escaped the confines of the transplanted liver within one week after transplantation and gained access to the general circulation.”
The Californian patient received a liver transplant after suffering from a chronic liver disease
The doctors said this was the “first case in the literature of donor cancer transmission” despite removing the original organ and having the recipient undergo a second transplant.
The donor, 63, died from a stroke but had no history of cancer and lab tests showed no signs of cancer in the patient. However, when an autopsy was performed on the donor the day after the surgery, a tumour was discovered, reports Mail.
Doctors said the tiny cancer cells were too small to be detected by scans which explains why his organ was declared cancer-free and safe to transplant.
The donor was posthumously diagnosed with metastatic pulmonary adenocarcinoma, a lung cancer that had spread to the area of his chest between the lungs.
After the autopsy, doctors relisted the patient for another liver and the new liver was successfully transplanted seven days later.
Even though doctors removed the first liver, the tiny cancer cells had already escaped into the patient
Ten months after the transplant, the Californian man underwent a CT scan which showed no signs of cancer. Sadly, six weeks after the scan he developed abdominal pain and vomiting.
Following tests, it was revealed that he had metastatic pulmonary adenocarcinoma, the same type of cancer as his first donor. He was admitted to hospital for treatment but died within 24 hours.
Doctors confirmed that the cancer originated from his first donor liver. Cases of ‘transplanted’ cancer are extremely rare and there are no statistics on the subject and only a handful of sporadic cases have been documented in medical literature.
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