Patient dies of cancer after receiving lung transplant from a smoker

The patient had been treated since childhood for cystic fibrosis and after deterioration of their respiratory functions, doctors decided in November 2015 to make a transplant of lungs.

"According to the donor database, the transplanted lungs belonged to a 57-year-old woman who smoked cigarette packs every day for 30 years," according to a study by oncologists at the University Hospital of Montpellier.

O to study notes that tests performed at the time of donor brain death did not reveal abnormalities.

In June 2017, the patient, who was ill, was admitted to the thoracic oncology unit of the hospital. Two months later, he died of cancer without attempting any therapy.

According to the study, the symptoms correspond to the cancer caused by smoking. "The short time between lung transplantation and the onset of the first radiological abnormality suggests that carcinogenesis has started in the life of the donor," the study authors added.

a cancer whose growth would have been greatly accelerated by the immunosuppressive treatments that the patient received to avoid rejection of her new lungs.

According to Dr. Jean-Louis Pujol and colleagues, "Given the relatively long latency time of lung cancer, we suggest that transplants from tobacco donors be treated with caution."

Source: AFP