The mission of the Kidney Transplant Program at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian is to maximize opportunities for transplantation for all patients that come to us seeking help.
Through the development of new strategies and advanced therapeutic modalities, we have made transplantation more accessible to more people. We evaluate and transplant many patients who were turned away at other transplant centers.
How Do We Achieve Our Mission?
We accomplish our goals by constantly evaluating new strategies for transplantation. If there is a way to safely transplant a patient, we can do it!
We have worked hard to develop, initiate, and offer all possible therapies for transplantation. The Transplant Program at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian has been a national leader in the development of innovative and advanced programs that have resulted in the expansion of opportunities for transplantation. Some of these strategies include:
- Donor Exchange
- Advanced Donation
- Blood Type (ABO) Incompatible Transplant
- Positive Crossmatch Transplant
- Utilization of increased risk deceased donor kidneys
We are also committed to advancing the science of transplantation in order to develop safer and more individualized therapies for our patients. Our contributions to these efforts include:
Steroid-sparing anti-rejection regimens in over 75 percent of our kidney transplant recipients. Since 2001, more than 2,000 patients have received our "steroid-sparing" medication regimen, and the acute rejection rates seen in our patients is less than 10 percent, which is below the national standards. Even patients who are considered "high-risk" for rejection due to their ethnic background or the type of kidney they receive have done well with this regimen. Benefits to our patients also include better lipids and lower rates of diabetes after transplant.
Kidney transplantation for patients with HIV, hepatitis C, and/or hepatitis B infection. Patients with these viral infections may successfully receive a kidney transplant. Our experience enables us to successfully maintain the balance between the need to protect the transplant kidney from rejection while managing the viral infection.
Kidney transplantation for older adults is now common, as increasing numbers of patients with kidney disease are 65 years old or older.
Unlike some other transplant centers, Weill Cornell Medicine does not have a strict age limit for patients in need of a kidney transplant. Instead, we evaluate you based on your overall health and level of functioning and we tailor your anti-rejection medication regimen accordingly.
For the past several years, more than 25 percent of our kidney transplant recipients have been age 65 or older — that’s more than 50 patients per year!
Many patients who come to our center for transplant evaluation have a complex medical history. This can include conditions such as heart disease, lung disease, and history of cancer. Our transplant center prides itself on our willingness to evaluate patients who may have been turned down by other transplant centers and giving them an opportunity to be thoughtfully considered for transplant.
At Weill Cornell Transplant, we are proud to offer our patients opportunities to participate in cutting-edge clinical research studies. These opportunities include new medications to suppress the immune system, novel therapies to reduce or wean immunosuppression, medications to help deceased donor organs function sooner and better after transplant, and studies of new tools for monitoring transplant patients.