Medical Design and Outsourcing

  • Home
  • Medical Device Business
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Financial
    • Regulatory
  • Applications
    • Cardiovascular
    • Devices
    • Imaging
    • Implantables
    • Medical Equipment
    • Orthopedic
    • Surgical
  • Technologies
    • Contract Manufacturing
    • Components
    • Electronics
    • Extrusions
    • Materials
    • Motion Control
    • Prototyping
    • Pumps
    • Tubing
  • Med Tech Resources
    • DeviceTalks Tuesdays
    • Digital Editions
    • eBooks
    • Manufacturer Search
    • Medical Device Handbook
    • MedTech 100 Index
    • Podcasts
    • Print Subscription
    • The Big 100
    • Webinars / Digital Events
    • Whitepapers
    • Video
  • 2022 Leadership in MedTech
    • 2022 Leadership Voting!
    • 2021 Winners
    • 2020 Winners
  • Women in Medtech

Liver Transplant For Bile Duct Cancer Improves Survival

December 15, 2010 By AxoGen, Inc.

In what is a rare occurrence for all but a handful of U.S. medical centers, Mayo Clinic in Arizona is treating a life-threatening cancer of the bile duct by performing a liver transplant — an aggressive protocol that is exhibiting dramatic increases in survival rates, offering new hope for patients with this complex disease.

Mayo Clinic is one of only two liver transplant programs in the region of the U.S. that encompasses Arizona, California, Utah, Nevada and New Mexico performing liver transplants to treat Cholangiocarcinoma, a relatively rare bile duct cancer.

Moreover, Mayo Clinic is the only medical center doing living donor liver transplantation as a treatment protocol for Cholangiocarcinoma. In such a procedure, a healthy person donates half or slightly more of his or her liver to a family member or close friend who otherwise would be on a waiting list. Living donor liver transplants are performed because of the increased number of patients on the liver transplant waiting list and the shortage of available organs. An advantage for both the donor and recipient is that the surgeries can be performed at optimal times for both patients — and before the recipient becomes too ill to withstand the transplant surgery itself.

The living donor liver transplant program at Mayo Clinic in Arizona ranks in the top five programs in the nation and is the largest program in the Western U.S.

Cholangiocarcinoma is a malignant tumor of the bile duct (accounting for less than 1 percent of all cancers) that is most frequently found in the ducts located close to the liver. Such tumors are often resistant to treatment because the tumor can extend deep into the liver, making it difficult — if not impossible — to remove through conventional surgical methods. The conventional method for bile duct cancer is to remove or "resect" the tumor, which may require removing part of the liver. Survival rates have not been promising because of the potential spread of the cancer within the liver.

The major advantage of liver transplants to treat the rare bile duct cancer is that removal of the patient’s entire liver also enables removal of the tumor itself, which in turn can mean a greater chance of longer-term survival. Until recently, such patients had few treatment options.

"By performing liver transplants for qualified patients with Cholangiocarcinoma, we are able to remove the entire liver, and therefore have more opportunity to remove the tumor itself, said David Douglas, M.D., Medical Director of Liver Transplantation at Mayo Clinic. "Patients have a much better prognosis in terms of living longer and a better quality of life."

Longer-term survival is also enhanced by the addition of radiation therapy and chemotherapy, a combined treatment that begins prior to transplantation. This protocol is administered to lessen the risk that the tumor could spread to lymph nodes or other areas.

"The complexities involved in treating Cholangiocarcinoma require a skilled, multidisciplinary team of experts to work toward the common goal of prolonged, disease-free survival for the patient," said Dr. Douglas. At Mayo Clinic, multiple review conferences are held, and patient clinics are staffed by providers from Hepatology, Transplant Surgery, Medical and Radiation Oncology.

Mayo recently performed two living donor liver transplants in one week for bile duct cancer, following comprehensive evaluation of both the donors and recipients as to their suitability for the living donor procedure.

For information, visit www.mayo.edu

Related Articles Read More >

Avail Medsystems
How Avail Medsystems seeks to create a connected OR experience
Engineer inspecting artificial hip joint parts in quality control department in orthopaedic factory
Deburring and finishing for beautiful, functional medical devices
FDA logo
FDA seeking innovations to move beyond heater-cooler device problems
Logos of Creo Medical and Intuitive
Creo Medical inks collaboration agreement with Intuitive

DeviceTalks Weekly.

June 24, 2022
How innovative design, commercial strategy is building Cala Trio’s bioelectronic medicine market
See More >

MDO Digital Edition

Digital Edition

Subscribe to Medical Design & Outsourcing. Bookmark, share and interact with the leading medical design engineering magazine today.

MEDTECH 100 INDEX

Medtech 100 logo
Market Summary > Current Price
The MedTech 100 is a financial index calculated using the BIG100 companies covered in Medical Design and Outsourcing.
DeviceTalks

DeviceTalks is a conversation among medical technology leaders. It's events, podcasts, webinars and one-on-one exchanges of ideas & insights.

DeviceTalks

New MedTech Resource

Medical Tubing

Enewsletter Subscriptions

Enewsletter Subscriptions

MassDevice

Mass Device

The Medical Device Business Journal. MassDevice is the leading medical device news business journal telling the stories of the devices that save lives.

Visit Website
MDO ad
Medical Design and Outsourcing
  • MassDevice
  • DeviceTalks
  • MedTech 100 Index
  • Medical Tubing + Extrusion
  • Drug Delivery Business News
  • Drug Discovery & Development
  • Pharmaceutical Processing World
  • R&D World
  • About Us/Contact
  • Advertise With Us
  • Subscribe to Print Magazine
  • Subscribe to E-newsletter
  • Attend our Monthly Webinars
  • Listen to our Weekly Podcasts
  • Join our DeviceTalks Tuesdays Discussion

Copyright © 2022 WTWH Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media LLC. Site Map | Privacy Policy | RSS

Search Medical Design & Outsourcing

  • Home
  • Medical Device Business
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Financial
    • Regulatory
  • Applications
    • Cardiovascular
    • Devices
    • Imaging
    • Implantables
    • Medical Equipment
    • Orthopedic
    • Surgical
  • Technologies
    • Contract Manufacturing
    • Components
    • Electronics
    • Extrusions
    • Materials
    • Motion Control
    • Prototyping
    • Pumps
    • Tubing
  • Med Tech Resources
    • DeviceTalks Tuesdays
    • Digital Editions
    • eBooks
    • Manufacturer Search
    • Medical Device Handbook
    • MedTech 100 Index
    • Podcasts
    • Print Subscription
    • The Big 100
    • Webinars / Digital Events
    • Whitepapers
    • Video
  • 2022 Leadership in MedTech
    • 2022 Leadership Voting!
    • 2021 Winners
    • 2020 Winners
  • Women in Medtech