KIDNEY TRANSPLANTATION

Transplantation and dialysis are the only two treatment options for persons with end-stage kidney disease. Not everyone with end-stage kidney disease is a suitable candidate for kidney transplantation. Those with infection, acute glomerulonephritis, unstable coronary artery disease, or other severe medical problems generally are considered not to be in good enough condition to undergo a major operation. They can have adverse reactions, including death, after transplantation than are healthier individuals. However, when successful, transplantation provides a healthier and better-quality life.

The operation itself is not a complicated procedure. What can be complicated is finding the right donor, which is important to lessen the chance of rejection of the new kidney. Compatibility is determined by blood tests that provide information about both the donor and the recipient, such as blood type and the nature of the antibodies present in each. A brother or sister of the recipient generally has compatible tissue. Unfortunately, it is not always possible.

When a living donor is not available, hospitals and clinics throughout the country are called on the help locate acceptable donors from among accident victims and others who offered to donate their kidneys after their death. A kidney from a cadaver must be transplanted within 48 hours after the death of the donor. Thus, some people have to undergo long periods on dialysis until a compatible cadaver donor is available.

After the transplantation operation, the person receives immonusuppressant drugs to keep his/her body from rejecting the foreign kidney. If the donor is a blood relative of the recipient, the chances are 85 to 95 percent that by 1 year after the transplantation, the kidney will still be functioning. With a cadaver donor, the chances are about 80 percent that the kidney will still be working quite well by 1 year after the transplant operation. In cases in which the transplanted kidney is rejected, a second or even third transplantation can be done.

Improvements in preparing patients for transplantation and in monitoring their recovery have decreased mortality to as low as 5 percent in some medical centers.

Transplant recipients usually are hospitalized for 5 days to 6 weeks, depending on how well their body accepts the new kidney. The major hurdles are rejection and infection. Immonusuppressant drugs have greatly decreased rejection, but they make it harder for the body’s immune system to fight infection. For this reason, the physician will often give antibiotics to prevent viral and fungal infection for the first few months after transplantation. This is the most likely period in which infection may develop. Because transplant recipients must take an immonusuppressant medication for the rest of their lives, they are prone to have infections.

Kidney transplant recipients need careful medical follow-up to enhance the success of the operation and to ensure good general health.

CANCER

Cancer is general term for various illnesses characterized by abnormal growth of cells, forming tumors that can develop in various parts of the body. Some cancers can affect one organ, and others are more generalized. Cancer is very serious disease. Annually, cancer is diagnosed in approximately 1.4 million persons. Cancer causes more than 500.000 deaths every year.

As we know, the human body is a living, growing system that contains billions of individual cells. These cells carry out all of the body’s functions, such as metabolism, transportation, excretion, reproduction, and locomotion. The body grows and develops as a result of increases in numbers of new cells and their changes into different types of tissue. New cells are created through the process of cell division. Different types of cells are created by an accompanying process called cell differentiation (differentiation is the process by which cell acquires a specialized function). Cell division results in the normal pattern of human growth; cell differentiation makes possible the normal, orderly pattern of growth and development.

Unlike normal cells, cancer cells lack the controls that stop growth. They divide without restraint, displacing neighboring normal cells by crowding them out and affecting their normal function and growth by competing with them. These uncontrolled cells can grow into a mass called a tumor (or a neoplasm) and invade and destroy nearby normal tissue. They also can migrate in a process called “metastasis”, spreading via the blood or lymph system to other parts of the body. It is important to note all cells that have rapid or uncontrolled growth are cancer cells. Cells may accumulate as benign tumors, which do not invade or destroy surrounding tissues.

Why cancer develops in some people is not fully known. The earlier the cancer detected, the greater the chances it can be treated before it spreads to other tissues or organs in the body. With the cancer screening procedures available today, many cancers can now be detected early enough to be cured. Every diagnosis of cancer attempts to identify the type and location of the cancer. Each type of cancer has its own characteristic rate of growth, tendency to spread, and particular set of target tissues or organs to which it spreads.

Cancer therapy is concentrated primarily on trying to confine and then kill the malignant cells. This goal is accomplished by killing the tissue with X-rays, by removing the tumor surgically, or by treating the patient with drugs that kill rapidly dividing cells (chemotherapy). The major problem is that some cancers cannot be removed completely by surgery or killed by X-rays. In addition, X-rays may also kill normal tissue adjacent to the tumor. Drugs used in cancer therapy do not kill only cancer tissue, but they kill any other rapidly growing tissue as well such as bone marrow (in which new blood cells are produced) and the lining of the intestinal tract. Loss of these tissues can result in anemia (caused by a lack of red blood cells) and nausea (caused by loss of the intestinal lining).

TUMORS

Tumors are masses or growths, which arise from surrounding normal tissue. They may be either malignant (progressive and life-threatening) or benign (non-progressive and not life-threatening). Benign tumors display slow growth and are encapsulated. So that tumor cells cannot invade the surrounding tissue. Malignant tumor growth is invasive. It extends beyond the tissue of origin into adjacent organs. The major groups of malignant tumors are carcinomas, sarcomas, and mixed-tissue tumors.

A carcinoma is a malignant tumor derived from epithelial tissue (glandular, skin, linings of internal organs). A sarcoma is a malignant tumor derived from connective tissue (blood, bone, muscle, fat, or cartilage). Mixed-tissue tumors are derived from tissue, which is capable of differentiating into epithelial as well as connective tissue.

Malignant neoplasms lack the normal growth control that is exhibited by most other adult tissues, and in many ways they resemble embryonic tissue. Rapid growth is one characteristic of embryonic tissue, but as the tissue begins to reach its adult size and function, it slows or stops growing completely. This cessation of growth is controlled at the individual cell level, cancer results when a cell or group of cells for some reasons breaks away from that control. This breaking loose involves the genetic machinery and can be induced by viruses, environmental toxins, and other causes. The illness associated with cancer usually occurs as the tumor invades and destroys the healthy surrounding tissue, eliminating its function. Malignant tumor can spread by local growth and expansion or by metastasis, which results from tumor cell’s separating from the main mass and being carried by the lymphatic or circulatory system to a new site where a second tumor is created.

There is no medicine to cure anybody from cancer. Scientists are trying to find the cure but they cannot find it. Very many sick people are waiting for this miraculous cure. It will help thousands of people that have cancer.