Transplant-related cancer treatment "encouraging"

A new cancer treatment is being trialled which may benefit patients with a form of the disease commonly found among transplant patients.

Around a tenth of organ transplant patients are at risk of developing a form of cancer called post-transplant lymphoproliferative disease (PTLD).

PTLD is believed to be caused by a virus which triggers the cancer while the immune system is suppressed and weak.

A clinical trial, detailed in the journal Blood, has now suggested that injections of donated white blood cells could help to fight the disease, as two thirds of patients responded to the cancer treatment.

Kate Law, director of clinical trials at Cancer Research UK, said that the results were "exciting", adding: "We hope further trials using this treatment will confirm its power to help people with this type of cancer."

Dr Tanzina Haque, who led the team of researchers at the University of Edinburgh, added that the results show that the therapy "could present a safe alternative treatment for the disease".
   
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