Results from an ITN study published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association demonstrated successful weaning of anti-rejection drugs in pediatric liver transplant recipients (results here). Results from this multicenter pilot study, led by Sandy Feng, MD, PhD (University of California, San Francisco), suggest that certain children undergoing liver transplantation from a parental living donor may be able to maintain their organ without the burdens of lifetime immunosuppression.
This study enrolled 20 highly-selected pediatric liver transplant patients who underwent stepwise immunosuppression reduction over a minimum period of 36 weeks. Of those 20 patients, 12 (60%) achieved the primary endpoint and were operationally tolerant and off all immunosuppression therapy for periods ranging 36 to 57 months.
This unexpectedly high rate of tolerance was achieved using a rigorous protocol across multiple clinical sites, a departure from previous experiences at isolated centers. This pilot is an important step toward conducting larger studies to better define liver transplant populations who can successfully undergo drug weaning and achieve tolerance.