Drug Reduces Kidney-Transplant Rejection Rates

(HealthDay News) Most kidney transplant patients have to undergo what's known as "induction therapy" to suppress their immune systems and lessen the chance of the new organ being rejected.

A new study found that one drug, rabbit antithymocyte globulin (brand name Thymoglobulin) was better at reducing the risk of acute rejection than a commonly used medication known as basiliximab -- 15.6 percent of the thymoglobulin group experienced acute rejection compared with 25.5 percent of the basiliximab group.

"Both acute rejections and the severity of the acute rejection rates were much lower," said the study's lead author, Dr. Daniel Brennan, director of transplant nephrology at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and a professor of medicine at the Washington University School of Medicine, in St. Louis.

"It might not sound like a big difference, but it's really quite important. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. The more severe rejection is, the more treatment is required, and the worse a transplant usually does in the long run," he explained.

Results of the study, which was sponsored by the maker of thymoglobulin, Genzyme, are published in the Nov. 9 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. Click here to read more.