From The Blade, Toledo, Ohio, by MARLENE HARRIS-TAYLOR
UTMC surgeon says program will save money in long run
Dr. Michael Rees, a University of Toledo Medical Center kidney transplant surgeon, has spent more than a decade developing ways to increase the number and quality of kidney transplants in the United States through a program he founded, the Alliance for Paired Donation.
Now Dr. Rees, who is also a professor of urology and pathology at the former Medical College of Ohio, is taking his expertise to focus on finding people in developing countries who don’t have the financial means for transplants, while increasing the number of kidneys available for U.S. patients.
Dr. Rees calls his new program reverse-transplant tourism.
A husband and wife from the Philippines, Jose and Kristine Mamaril, are the first participants to benefit from this innovative system that allowed Mr. Mamaril to receive a life-saving transplant in Toledo from an American donor in Georgia. His wife, who has a coveted blood type, reciprocated by donating a kidney to a man in Minnesota who previously would have had to wait years for a match.
According to the website Kidneylink, the average wait for people who need transplants and lack matching donors from their families varies between three and five years.
“In rich countries there’s not enough kidneys for people who have kidney failure, but there is plenty of money to pay for all the transplants. In poor countries, there’s lots of people that need kidney transplants and lots of available donors, but in poor countries they don’t have enough money,” Dr. Rees said.
This new program breaks down some of those barriers and helps bring people with the universal Type O blood into the U.S donor system, while helping someone from another country get access to free medical care.
One year of a kidney patient’s dialysis costs Medicare about $90,000, or nearly triple the $33,000 cost of a kidney transplant, Dr. Rees said. He argues his donor-matching system will ultimately save the federal government and private insurers money because it moves patients with kidney failure, also known as end-stage renal disease, off dialysis sooner.
“It is what health-care reform is all about. It increases access, so now poor people are getting access to transplantation. It reduces the cost of care and it improves the quality of care because a transplant’s a lot better than dialysis. The average person who gets a kidney transplant lives 10 years longer than if the same person had they remained on dialysis,” Dr. Rees said.
‘A miracle’
Mr. Mamaril, 31, had nearly given up hope of ever being able to afford a kidney transplant at home in San Pablo, in the Philippines’ Laguna province. He told his wife they could afford neither the transplant nor dialysis and tried to persuade her to give up on him and save their meager money to take care of their 8-year-old son.
The Mamarils are not poor by Philippine standards. Both college-educated, she is an accountant for Dunkin’ Donuts in Laguna while Mr. Mamaril had been operating a taxi business that transports passengers using motorcycles with trailers.
Everything changed for the family when he began to feel weak and dizzy in October, 2013 — a symptom of his kidneys failing. By the following January he started dialysis, but the couple had to borrow money from relatives to pay for it.
Mr. Mamaril, often speaking through an interpreter, said he worried constantly about how to pay for his expensive medical care. Dialysis or a transplant cost 10 times the family’s income, Dr. Rees said, and the Philippines has no public health system to help pay for transplants. [Read more]
PKD Fundraising
From PKD Foundation of Canada, Hamilton Chapter
Hamilton Chapter Fundraiser: HOPe For a Cure!
From Trinidad Express Newspapers, By Dennis Webster
Eliminating the need for Dialysis by 2025
Dr. Michael Rees, a University of Toledo Medical Center kidney transplant surgeon, has spent more than a decade developing ways to increase the number and quality of kidney transplants in the United States through a program he founded, the Alliance for Paired Donation.
Now Dr. Rees, who is also a professor of urology and pathology at the former Medical College of Ohio, is taking his expertise to focus on finding people in developing countries who don’t have the financial means for transplants, while increasing the number of kidneys available for U.S. patients.
Dr. Rees calls his new program reverse-transplant tourism.
A husband and wife from the Philippines, Jose and Kristine Mamaril, are the first participants to benefit from this innovative system that allowed Mr. Mamaril to receive a life-saving transplant in Toledo from an American donor in Georgia. His wife, who has a coveted blood type, reciprocated by donating a kidney to a man in Minnesota who previously would have had to wait years for a match.
According to the website Kidneylink, the average wait for people who need transplants and lack matching donors from their families varies between three and five years.
“In rich countries there’s not enough kidneys for people who have kidney failure, but there is plenty of money to pay for all the transplants. In poor countries, there’s lots of people that need kidney transplants and lots of available donors, but in poor countries they don’t have enough money,” Dr. Rees said.
This new program breaks down some of those barriers and helps bring people with the universal Type O blood into the U.S donor system, while helping someone from another country get access to free medical care.
One year of a kidney patient’s dialysis costs Medicare about $90,000, or nearly triple the $33,000 cost of a kidney transplant, Dr. Rees said. He argues his donor-matching system will ultimately save the federal government and private insurers money because it moves patients with kidney failure, also known as end-stage renal disease, off dialysis sooner.
“It is what health-care reform is all about. It increases access, so now poor people are getting access to transplantation. It reduces the cost of care and it improves the quality of care because a transplant’s a lot better than dialysis. The average person who gets a kidney transplant lives 10 years longer than if the same person had they remained on dialysis,” Dr. Rees said.
‘A miracle’
Mr. Mamaril, 31, had nearly given up hope of ever being able to afford a kidney transplant at home in San Pablo, in the Philippines’ Laguna province. He told his wife they could afford neither the transplant nor dialysis and tried to persuade her to give up on him and save their meager money to take care of their 8-year-old son.
The Mamarils are not poor by Philippine standards. Both college-educated, she is an accountant for Dunkin’ Donuts in Laguna while Mr. Mamaril had been operating a taxi business that transports passengers using motorcycles with trailers.
Everything changed for the family when he began to feel weak and dizzy in October, 2013 — a symptom of his kidneys failing. By the following January he started dialysis, but the couple had to borrow money from relatives to pay for it.
Mr. Mamaril, often speaking through an interpreter, said he worried constantly about how to pay for his expensive medical care. Dialysis or a transplant cost 10 times the family’s income, Dr. Rees said, and the Philippines has no public health system to help pay for transplants. [Read more]
PKD Fundraising
From PKD Foundation of Canada, Hamilton Chapter
Hamilton Chapter Fundraiser: HOPe For a Cure!
MAR
14
Time: 7:00pm - 11:30pm
Location: Royal Hamilton Light Infantry - Veterans, 1353 Barton Street E, Hamilton ON L8H 2W2
Location: Royal Hamilton Light Infantry - Veterans, 1353 Barton Street E, Hamilton ON L8H 2W2
The PKD Foundation of Canada – Hamilton Chapter is proud to be hosting ‘HOPe For a Cure’! An evening featuring live music, swing dancing, silent auctions and fundraising fun.
PKD is one of the most common, life-threatening genetic diseases in the world; affecting approximately 66,000 Canadians and 12.5 million people worldwide. There is no treatment or cure for this disease. PKD will threaten the lives of every generation of every afflicted family until one is found. It equally affects men, women and children – regardless of geography or ethnic origin. The mission of the PKD Foundation of Canada is to promote programs of research, advocacy, education, support and awareness in order to discover treatments and a cure for PKD.
EVENT DETAILS:
7:00pm: Doors
7:30pm: Swing dance lessons
8:00pm: Live music featuring The Jumpin’ Jive Band
TICKETS:
$15 + $1.89 service fee in advance available here.
$20 at the door.
Be sure to join the official Facebook event here for up to date information on silent auction items, sponsorship opportunities and more!
This event is generously sponsored by The Jumpin’ Jive Band & David Trinh DJ Services.
Additional Sponsorship opportunities still available. Please contact us at hamiltonchapter@endpkd.ca for details.
PKD is one of the most common, life-threatening genetic diseases in the world; affecting approximately 66,000 Canadians and 12.5 million people worldwide. There is no treatment or cure for this disease. PKD will threaten the lives of every generation of every afflicted family until one is found. It equally affects men, women and children – regardless of geography or ethnic origin. The mission of the PKD Foundation of Canada is to promote programs of research, advocacy, education, support and awareness in order to discover treatments and a cure for PKD.
EVENT DETAILS:
7:00pm: Doors
7:30pm: Swing dance lessons
8:00pm: Live music featuring The Jumpin’ Jive Band
TICKETS:
$15 + $1.89 service fee in advance available here.
$20 at the door.
Be sure to join the official Facebook event here for up to date information on silent auction items, sponsorship opportunities and more!
This event is generously sponsored by The Jumpin’ Jive Band & David Trinh DJ Services.
Additional Sponsorship opportunities still available. Please contact us at hamiltonchapter@endpkd.ca for details.
Living with Dialysis
According to the International Diabetes Federation, an organisation of over 230 national diabetes associations in 170 countries and territories, there were 135,600 cases of diabetes in Trinidad and Tobago in 2014. Presently there are also 300,000 people living with hypertension.
Research estimates that approximately 45 per cent of diabetics will develop kidney failure as well as about 15 per cent of people living with hypertension. This means that roughly 106,020 people will eventually require dialysis treatment. According to the National Kidney Foundation, you can expect to lose approximately one per cent of kidney function every year due to the natural aging process. This is compounded if you are living with diabetes and hypertension.
The US has about 300 million residents and presently dialyses about 450,000 people per year at a cost of about US$90,000 per person for a total of over 40 billion dollars annually. Patients on dialysis generally have a life expectancy of five-ten years. Many patients however have lived well on dialysis for 20 or even 30 years.
All living beings have something called genes, thousands of them. Our genes and their genetic coding (instructions) determine things like our appearance and how we survive. Everything is set up in our body in a specific order. Gene mutations (changes to the order) can occur leading to disease. Genomics, basically the study of genes, has found that changes in this order can lead to the development of certain diseases, one being kidney failure. Dr David Moskowitz of GenoMed, a company that searches for these anomalies has found that treatment of one such gene defect with the use of an inexpensive oral medication can stop the progression of kidney disease to ESRD (End Stage Renal Disease) requiring dialysis. His research has shown that 90 per cent of kidney failure can be prevented at a considerable cost reduction to the health care system while at the same time improving quality of life. GenoMed hopes to eliminate the need for dialysis by 2015. Their outcomes have been published and peer reviewed.
What is required according to Dr Moskowitz is that treatment be started when one’s creatinine level is less than or equal to 2mg/dl with two to three fairly inexpensive medications. Creatinine is a chemical waste product produced by your muscle metabolism and to a smaller extent by eating meat. Your healthy kidneys get rid of creatinine and other waste products (including excess water) in your urine. Checking the creatine level in your blood helps determine how well your kidneys are working. Normal blood creatine levels range from 0.7- 1.3 mg/dl. If you are living with diabetes and or high blood pressure and would like to get more information on how Dr Moskowitz’s research can help you or see his results, you can call 683-6145 or email me at gprl3012@gmail.com.
Research estimates that approximately 45 per cent of diabetics will develop kidney failure as well as about 15 per cent of people living with hypertension. This means that roughly 106,020 people will eventually require dialysis treatment. According to the National Kidney Foundation, you can expect to lose approximately one per cent of kidney function every year due to the natural aging process. This is compounded if you are living with diabetes and hypertension.
The US has about 300 million residents and presently dialyses about 450,000 people per year at a cost of about US$90,000 per person for a total of over 40 billion dollars annually. Patients on dialysis generally have a life expectancy of five-ten years. Many patients however have lived well on dialysis for 20 or even 30 years.
All living beings have something called genes, thousands of them. Our genes and their genetic coding (instructions) determine things like our appearance and how we survive. Everything is set up in our body in a specific order. Gene mutations (changes to the order) can occur leading to disease. Genomics, basically the study of genes, has found that changes in this order can lead to the development of certain diseases, one being kidney failure. Dr David Moskowitz of GenoMed, a company that searches for these anomalies has found that treatment of one such gene defect with the use of an inexpensive oral medication can stop the progression of kidney disease to ESRD (End Stage Renal Disease) requiring dialysis. His research has shown that 90 per cent of kidney failure can be prevented at a considerable cost reduction to the health care system while at the same time improving quality of life. GenoMed hopes to eliminate the need for dialysis by 2015. Their outcomes have been published and peer reviewed.
What is required according to Dr Moskowitz is that treatment be started when one’s creatinine level is less than or equal to 2mg/dl with two to three fairly inexpensive medications. Creatinine is a chemical waste product produced by your muscle metabolism and to a smaller extent by eating meat. Your healthy kidneys get rid of creatinine and other waste products (including excess water) in your urine. Checking the creatine level in your blood helps determine how well your kidneys are working. Normal blood creatine levels range from 0.7- 1.3 mg/dl. If you are living with diabetes and or high blood pressure and would like to get more information on how Dr Moskowitz’s research can help you or see his results, you can call 683-6145 or email me at gprl3012@gmail.com.
From The Ledger, Lakeland, Florida, By Robin Williams Adams
Kidney patients can judge by the stars when they compare dialysis centers on Medicare's website, checking how many stars a center gets as its grade.
Medicare has added star rankings to Dialysis Facility Compare. The new system gives a one-to-five-star rating, grades the agency said are based on information about the quality of care and services a facility provides.
Those with five stars are in the top 10 percent and those with one star are in the bottom 10 percent.
None in Polk got five stars.
Davenport Dialysis Center in East Polk, which received four stars, ranked highest among Polk County centers. Four stars means a facility, although not in the top 10 percent, is in the next 20 percent.
The lowest ranking — one star — went to RAI Care centers in Winter Haven, Lake Wales and Haines City.
Lake Vista Dialysis in Lakeland, Lake Wales Dialysis, Watson Clinic Kidney Center in Lakeland and Winter Haven Dialysis each got two stars.
Three-star recipients in Polk are Bartow Dialysis, Lakeland Dialysis and Lakeland South Dialysis.
Three-star facilities are in the middle 40 percent of dialysis centers judged.
Information wasn't available for Winter Haven South Dialysis.
Two dialysis centers near Polk County, Poinciana Dialysis and Plant City Dialysis, got three stars and two stars, respectively.
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services officials encourage dialysis patients to talk with their doctors and the facilities about the ratings.
From Melanoma News Today
Ipilimumab Efficient in Kidney Transplantation Patients With Metastatic Melanoma
In a study titled “Successful Administration of Ipilimumab to Two Kidney Transplantation Patients With Metastatic Melanoma”, a team of researchers from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, Baltimore, MD, reported that ipilimumab was successfully administered to two patients suffering with metastatic melanoma, who had already received kidney transplantation.
Ipilimumab (Yervoy; Bristol-Myers Squibb) is an anti-CTLA-4 receptor antibody, which inhibits the connection of the receptor to its ligand and allows the patient’s immune system to recognize and destroy tumor cells, therefore increasing the naturally occurring immune response.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration have approved this immunotherapeutic for the treatment of patients with metastatic melanoma. However, for patients who suffer from autoimmune disorders or receive organ transplantations, available therapeutic options are significantly reduced.
The first patient treated in this clinical study was a 72-year-old man who received kidney transplantation for end-stage kidney disease due to hypertension, and who 8 years later was diagnosed with a ≥ 8 mm ulcerated melanoma on his left chest. After receiving a left axillary node dissection, the patient was treated with surgery and radiotherapy. However, 3 years later he was diagnosed with an unresectable left chest wall metastases and a new liver lesion, and subsequently initiated ipilimumab treatment. “The patient tolerated therapy well and had decreased abnormal metabolic activity corresponding to subcutaneous soft tissue lesions in the left lateral and anterior chest and near resolution of the previously seen abnormal [18F]-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) uptake in the left lobe of the liver”, the authors write in their study.
The other patient was a 58-year-old man who received kidney transplantation for advanced kidney failure caused by polycystic kidney disease. Seven years after the transplant, he was found to have a 4.2 mm nodular melanoma on his forehead, which was later diagnosed as BRAF and C-KIT wild type. After wide local excision, superficial parotidectomy and right neck dissection, his melanoma was found to be present in four different lymph nodes, and one year later his cancer was found to be metastasized. He then initiated treatment with ipilimumab, which after the fourth dose was found to initiate disease regression in several areas, including a decrease in size and FDG avidity of multiple bilateral pulmonary lesions.
“Although further study in a larger patient cohort is required, these two cases illustrate that ipilimumab may be a safe and effective option for patients with metastatic melanoma who have previously undergone solid organ transplantation. This is of particular importance given that the incidence of melanoma is higher among solid organ transplantation patients than in the general population”, the authors conclude.
Medicare has added star rankings to Dialysis Facility Compare. The new system gives a one-to-five-star rating, grades the agency said are based on information about the quality of care and services a facility provides.
Those with five stars are in the top 10 percent and those with one star are in the bottom 10 percent.
None in Polk got five stars.
Davenport Dialysis Center in East Polk, which received four stars, ranked highest among Polk County centers. Four stars means a facility, although not in the top 10 percent, is in the next 20 percent.
The lowest ranking — one star — went to RAI Care centers in Winter Haven, Lake Wales and Haines City.
Lake Vista Dialysis in Lakeland, Lake Wales Dialysis, Watson Clinic Kidney Center in Lakeland and Winter Haven Dialysis each got two stars.
Three-star recipients in Polk are Bartow Dialysis, Lakeland Dialysis and Lakeland South Dialysis.
Three-star facilities are in the middle 40 percent of dialysis centers judged.
Information wasn't available for Winter Haven South Dialysis.
Two dialysis centers near Polk County, Poinciana Dialysis and Plant City Dialysis, got three stars and two stars, respectively.
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services officials encourage dialysis patients to talk with their doctors and the facilities about the ratings.
PKD Research
In a study titled “Successful Administration of Ipilimumab to Two Kidney Transplantation Patients With Metastatic Melanoma”, a team of researchers from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, Baltimore, MD, reported that ipilimumab was successfully administered to two patients suffering with metastatic melanoma, who had already received kidney transplantation.
Ipilimumab (Yervoy; Bristol-Myers Squibb) is an anti-CTLA-4 receptor antibody, which inhibits the connection of the receptor to its ligand and allows the patient’s immune system to recognize and destroy tumor cells, therefore increasing the naturally occurring immune response.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration have approved this immunotherapeutic for the treatment of patients with metastatic melanoma. However, for patients who suffer from autoimmune disorders or receive organ transplantations, available therapeutic options are significantly reduced.
The first patient treated in this clinical study was a 72-year-old man who received kidney transplantation for end-stage kidney disease due to hypertension, and who 8 years later was diagnosed with a ≥ 8 mm ulcerated melanoma on his left chest. After receiving a left axillary node dissection, the patient was treated with surgery and radiotherapy. However, 3 years later he was diagnosed with an unresectable left chest wall metastases and a new liver lesion, and subsequently initiated ipilimumab treatment. “The patient tolerated therapy well and had decreased abnormal metabolic activity corresponding to subcutaneous soft tissue lesions in the left lateral and anterior chest and near resolution of the previously seen abnormal [18F]-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) uptake in the left lobe of the liver”, the authors write in their study.
The other patient was a 58-year-old man who received kidney transplantation for advanced kidney failure caused by polycystic kidney disease. Seven years after the transplant, he was found to have a 4.2 mm nodular melanoma on his forehead, which was later diagnosed as BRAF and C-KIT wild type. After wide local excision, superficial parotidectomy and right neck dissection, his melanoma was found to be present in four different lymph nodes, and one year later his cancer was found to be metastasized. He then initiated treatment with ipilimumab, which after the fourth dose was found to initiate disease regression in several areas, including a decrease in size and FDG avidity of multiple bilateral pulmonary lesions.
“Although further study in a larger patient cohort is required, these two cases illustrate that ipilimumab may be a safe and effective option for patients with metastatic melanoma who have previously undergone solid organ transplantation. This is of particular importance given that the incidence of melanoma is higher among solid organ transplantation patients than in the general population”, the authors conclude.
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