Open Label Randomized Study of Thymoglobulin Versus Daclizumab Induction Therapies for the Reduction of Acute Rejection in Live Donor Kidney Transplant Recipients With a Positive Crossmatch
Open Label Randomized Study of Thymoglobulin Versus Daclizumab Induction Therapies for the Reduction of Acute Rejection in Live Donor Kidney Transplant Recipients With a Positive Crossmatch
The purpose of this study is to determine whether the anti-T cell antibody, Thymoglobulin is a more effective induction medication than the anti-IL-2R inhibitor daclizumab, in kidney transplant recipients who have a positive crossmatch with their live donor.
Kidney transplantation is widely recognized as the optimal therapy for the management of end-stage renal disease. Presently, the deceased donor kidney waiting list has expanded disproportionately with the number of transplant procedures that are performed in the United States. To further compound this problem, as many as 1/3 of the patients on this list are highly sensitized against a broad range of potential donors.
In order to address this problem, we developed an antibody depletion protocol that permits transplantation in patients who have a positive crossmatch with their live donor. The protocol consists of standard immunosuppressant therapy, plasmapheresis, and intravenous immunoglobulin infusion. We have successfully performed transplantation in over 100 such patients with low complication rates.
Because these patients have been exposed to their donor's human leukocyte antigen (HLA) they are at high risk for both acute cellular and acute antibody-mediated rejection. This intent of this prospective, randomized, open-label trial is to determine whether induction therapy (i.e. therapy given at the time of transplantation for prophylaxis) with Thymoglobulin is associated with a lower 6-month incidence of acute cellular and antibody-mediated rejection than with our standard therapy, daclizumab.
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