NHS Rolls Out New Treatment to Stop Kidney Transplant Rejections

The National Health Service (NHS) in the United Kingdom is launching a new method to help kidney transplant patients keep their donated organs. The approach is called "double matching," and it goes beyond making sure blood types line up. Scientists will now also match white blood cells between donors and patients as closely as they can. Health officials believe this extra step could stop around 100 kidney rejections every year.

The program is being rolled out across the whole country after a successful test at two London hospitals — Hammersmith Hospital and the Royal Free. NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) led the pilot program and is now bringing it to all kidney transplant patients nationwide. Officials hope the new method will also help reduce the very long waiting times that many patients face. Some people have been waiting on transplant lists for many years, and a few have waited for decades.

About two out of every five kidney transplant patients need blood transfusions before or after their surgery. A transfusion means receiving donated blood to help the body. Sometimes, after getting a transfusion, a person's body creates antibodies — tiny proteins that fight things the body sees as foreign. If those antibodies attack the donated kidney, the kidney is much more likely to be rejected by the body.

One patient who understands this fear very well is a woman whose kidneys were removed when she was a child because of a Wilms tumour, which is a type of kidney cancer that affects children. She received two kidney transplants from deceased donors, in 1994 and 1997, but both were rejected. In 2004, she received a kidney from her father, and that kidney is still working well today. She has had more than 10 blood transfusions throughout her life.

She explained how worrying antibodies can be for kidney patients. "Matching the blood for white blood cells will be extremely helpful because antibodies are always a worry," she said. "If I need blood, I am scared I will get them. If that risk can be alleviated it will be a massive relief." She added that when she gets her blood tested, she always hopes to find no sign of new antibodies.

Fiona Loud, policy director for Kidney Care UK, also praised the new approach. She said the transplant waiting list is sadly at an all-time high. She noted that some patients become "over-sensitised," meaning their bodies are so full of antibodies that it is very hard to find a kidney they won't reject. This new science could help those patients finally get a transplant that works.

The numbers show just how serious the problem is. As of June, 7,304 people in the UK were waiting for a kidney transplant or a combined kidney and pancreas transplant. Between 250 and 300 people die every year while waiting for a kidney. Health leaders hope this new double matching method will save lives and give more patients a chance at a healthy future.