Cancer Drug ‘Reverses Transplant Rejection’

A drug used to treat cancer has proven effective at stopping the body from rejecting a transplanted organ when other treatments failed, a study has found.

US researchers administered the drug, bortezomib, to six patients whose immune systems were attacking transplanted kidneys and who did not respond to traditional anti-rejection treatments.

In each case, the drug promptly reversed the rejection, improved organ function, provided prolonged reductions in antibody levels and suppressed recurrent rejection for at least five months.

Older People Mixing Drugs: Study

Potentially dangerous mixing of medications is common among older people and non-prescription drugs are the culprit more than half of the time, a new study finds.

US researchers found nearly one out of every 25 people aged 57 to 85 took dangerous combinations of drugs with the potential for serious interactions, the study found.

“The public has an awareness that two prescription medications used together might be dangerous,” said study author Stacy Tessler Lindau of the University of Chicago Medical Center.