3 die of breast cancer after organ transplants from same donor
In what's being considered an "extraordinary" case, three people died of breast cancer after an organ donor passed the disease on, according to a study.
Four recipients were diagnosed with cancer in the span of 16 months to six years after the transplants took place, , citing the American Journal of Transplantation.
The three diagnosed with cancer died after the disease spread. Another patient survived after a surgery to remove the transplanted kidney. That patient also received chemotherapy treatment.
A fifth transplant recipient died from sepsis and was not diagnosed with cancer.
Tumor cells in the organs were not spotted by doctors before transplanting them into patients, according to the study.
But doctors stress that the chances of getting cancer from a donor is slim: just a 0.01 percent to 0.005 percent chance.
Doctors think the tumors cells could have spread because the warm organs were stored without blood supply.
The American Cancer Society estimates that with invasive breast cancer in 2018.