News & Events

UCSF News reports on the the difficult choices that patients, families and doctors face because of the shortage of donated organs for transplantation. A difficult conundrum for the nation's transplant patients was aired September 22 when the news program California Connected featured UCSF's Liver Transplant Program. The story, produced by Jon Dann for public television stations KQED and KCET, highlights the difficult choices that patients, families and doctors face because of the shortage of donated organs for transplantation. Reporter Bob Jimenez pointed out that this shortage in one [...]

"Of all the things for a married couple to bicker about, Nancy Ascher and John Roberts have hit on a first -- a pulsing human liver. To be precise, they are standing forehead to forehead with a man splayed out between them. Roberts wants more of his liver to take next door to a waiting recipient. Ascher wants more of it left behind for the donor's recovery."

"The body's rejection of transplanted organs and tissues is an unfortunate risk of transplant surgery. Historically, rejection rates in a simultaneous pancreas-kidney (SPK) transplant have been as high as 80% and, in 2001, averaged nearly 20%. ........Diabetes Center surgeons Peter Stock, (left) and Chris Freise (right) have been pioneering new methods of immunosuppression for SPK transplants that do not rely upon steroids, with great success...... " Read Full Diabetes Center Article Read Journal Article in American Journal of Transplantation

"The next day, surgeons at the University of California at San Francisco performed a rare liver transplant called a ``domino transplant,'' the first in the Bay Area and one of just a handful done in the United States. ........................Her choice was to have a liver that will give her a disease in 30 years, or die of cancer in the next year,'' said Dr. Ryutaro Hirose (pictured left), the surgeon for both transplants. ``She jumped at the chance, and most people would.''