China Daily Global Edition (USA)
Transplant device may cut chemotherapy side effects
A top doctor in the field of liver transplantation has suggested a new device meant to increase the success rate of such procedures could also be used to reduce the side effects of chemotherapy for cancer patients.
He Xiaoshun, vice-president of the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, along with his team, invented a device that can keep organs viable outside the human body with uninterrupted blood flow.
The device, which can be used to store organs for up to a week, has been used in the liver transplants of 14 patients since July. The organ recipients, who ranged in age from 27 to 69 and included a Hong Kong resident, have all been discharged from the hospital in Guangzhou.
He said he believes the device could also be used in other treatments, such as for cancer patients.
“Currently, treatments not only target the afflicted organs, but the whole human body. For example, a liver cancer patient usually finds he or she is very weak after having received chemotherapy,” the surgeon said.
“That is because the other dombra, healthy organs and cells have also been seriously affected by the chemotherapy treatment to cure the liver disease,” said He, who is also the top expert in the hospital’s organ transplant center.
“If our device can be put into clinical use, other organs of a liver cancer patient will remain intact while only the affected liver will receive chemotherapy outside the body.”
The liver can be transplanted back into the body after cancer cells have been neutralized via chemotherapy, and doctors have used tests to prove that the cancer-stricken organs have become healthy after treatments outside the body, he said.
Further potential
But before the method can be put into clinical use, animal testing must first be carried out, He said, adding that what can be done now is to work to improve the device, making it usable for storing organs other than livers, such as hearts, kidneys and lungs.
He hopes the government will promote the use of the device in such areas.
Chen Xinzi, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said the device harbors tremendous research potential and provides a new technological platform for the study of the clinical applications of organ functions, organ treatment and organ repair outside the human body, as well as possibly helping advance various life science disciplines.
“The success of the new technology is a great contribution by Chinese medical science to the world,” said Chen, who is former president of Hong Kong Baptist University and now honorary dean of Sun Yat-sen University’s School of Pharmaceutical Science.
However, Zhi Xiuyi, a lung cancer expert with the Xuanwu Hospital at Capital Medical University in Beijing argued that treating cancer outside of the human body has its restrictions. For example, the probability of curing lung cancer outside the patient’s body is low at the moment.
“Lung cancer might include lymphatic metastasis along with related diseases, and we cannot take out the affected lymphatic tissue for treatment outside a human body as lung cancer is a systemic disease as opposed to a localized disease,” Zhi said.
He Xiaoshun’s team began to study the new technology of ischemia-free liver transplants seven years ago. In August, the technology was announced and lauded as a success in liver transplant modalities. Compared with traditional liver transplants, the ischemia-free surgery takes a shorter amount of time, can help reduce complications and shortens the recovery period.
Campbell Fraser, a member of the Transplantation Society of Istanbul, said He’s ischemiafree liver transplant method is a breakthrough and represents a contribution to the development and innovation of global organ transplantation.
Many officials from the World Health Organization and experts worldwide visited He’s hospital and exchanged views on his innovative liver transplantation method when Guangzhou organized the China-International Organ Donation Congress between Dec 15 and 17.
More than 4,080 transplantation surgeries were carried out in China last year, and the figure is expected to see substantial growth in the coming years, experts said.