Every year, thousands of patients in need of a kidney transplant find a live donor but are relegated to forego the benefits of live donor transplantation because of ABO or HLA incompatibilities. They can participate in kidney paired donation (KPD, also called kidney exchanges or chains), but >50% will not find a compatible match through KPD due to broad HLA sensitization or hard-to-match blood types. Without incompatible live donor kidney transplantation (ILDKT), the only option for these patients is the 90,000-patient deceased donor waiting list, where waiting times average 5-8 years and death rates average 5-10% per year. ILDKT is an emerging practice in which patients can receive transplants across antibody barriers through the use of various pre- and post-operative desensitization strategies. We recently showed that close to 100 centers perform ILDKT in the US, although few have studied or reported their outcomes. While great gains have been recently made in this field, future growth is currently limited by inferences from single-center reports which suffer from publication bias, lack of statistical power, inability to compare protocol effectiveness within a single-center (because of protocol homogeneity within a given center), and lack of generalizability. The only way to move this field forward is for centers to study outcomes collaboratively, but data collection burden is an obvious concern. A mandated, national transplant registry does exist, but data relevant to ILDKT are not collected. We propose a large, highly efficient, mixed retrospective/prospective multi-center linkage of minimal-burden ILDKT-specific primary data to rich, longitudinal national registry data, through which we can: (1) quantify patient, antibody, and treatment protocol factors associated with ILDKT outcomes; (2) identify patients who derive survival benefit from ILDKT compared with other available options; and (3) explore center-level associations with ILDKT outcomes, including center-volume relationships. No single-center studies have been powered to study risk prediction in ILDKT. We will collect ILDKT- specific data of approximately 5800 recipients and link to the national registry for multivariate analyses of factors associated with outcomes. To compare ILDKT with the other available options, i.e. waiting for a compatible deceased donor or KPD, we will use a Markov decision process model that combine inferences drawn from observational data of the waiting list with inferences drawn from simulations of KPD. We will use interaction term analysis to identify factors that amplify or attenuate the effect of ILDKT on survival benefit. This researh will establish a framework for patient selection and counseling for ILDKT that is evidence- based and in the best interest of patients. Robust quantification of the risk and survival benefit associated with ILDKT is novel and will be immediately useable clinically throughout the country. A better understanding of this emerging modality at a national, generalizable level will help improve the feasibility, availability, and quality of ILDKT for the thousands of patients each year who could potentially benefit from it.

Public Health Relevance

Although live donor kidney transplantation is the best treatment for kidney failure, thousands of patients each year have a healthy, willing donor but are relegated to forego the benefits of live donor transplantation because they are incompatible with their donor. Incompatible kidney transplantation is an emerging practice in which patients can receive kidney transplants from their incompatible donors, but this field has thus far been limited to single-center experiences which lack the statistical power to make meaningful conclusions about risk and survival benefit. The goal of this project is to link information specifc to the incompatible transplants with an already existing transplant registry, on a national level, thereby allowing a much bigger and more generalizable study population from which to make conclusions about patient selection, counseling, and quality assurance for this specialized transplant procedure.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
3R01DK098431-02S1
Application #
8977943
Study Section
Kidney, Nutrition, Obesity and Diabetes (KNOD)
Program Officer
Kusek, John W
Project Start
2013-07-01
Project End
2018-05-31
Budget Start
2014-06-01
Budget End
2015-05-31
Support Year
2
Fiscal Year
2015
Total Cost
$90,370
Indirect Cost
$34,586
Name
Johns Hopkins University
Department
Surgery
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
001910777
City
Baltimore
State
MD
Country
United States
Zip Code
21205
Holscher, Courtenay M; Jackson, Kyle; Thomas, Alvin G et al. (2018) Temporal changes in the composition of a large multicenter kidney exchange clearinghouse: Do the hard-to-match accumulate? Am J Transplant 18:2791-2797
Jackson, Kyle R; Covarrubias, Karina; Holscher, Courtenay M et al. (2018) The national landscape of deceased donor kidney transplantation for the highly sensitized: Transplant rates, waitlist mortality, and posttransplant survival under KAS. Am J Transplant :
Orandi, Babak J; Luo, Xun; King, Elizabeth A et al. (2018) Hospital readmissions following HLA-incompatible live donor kidney transplantation: A multi-center study. Am J Transplant 18:650-658
Holscher, Courtenay M; Jackson, Kyle; Chow, Eric K H et al. (2018) Kidney exchange match rates in a large multicenter clearinghouse. Am J Transplant 18:1510-1517
Ahmed, R; Chow, E K; Massie, A B et al. (2016) Where the Sun Shines: Industry's Payments to Transplant Surgeons. Am J Transplant 16:292-300
Axelrod, D; Segev, D L; Xiao, H et al. (2016) Economic Impacts of ABO-Incompatible Live Donor Kidney Transplantation: A National Study of Medicare-Insured Recipients. Am J Transplant 16:1465-73
Orandi, Babak J; Luo, Xun; Massie, Allan B et al. (2016) Survival Benefit with Kidney Transplants from HLA-Incompatible Live Donors. N Engl J Med 374:940-50
Orandi, B J; Alachkar, N; Kraus, E S et al. (2016) Presentation and Outcomes of C4d-Negative Antibody-Mediated Rejection After Kidney Transplantation. Am J Transplant 16:213-20
Orandi, B J; Chow, E H K; Hsu, A et al. (2015) Quantifying renal allograft loss following early antibody-mediated rejection. Am J Transplant 15:489-98
Jackson, Annette M; Kraus, Edward S; Orandi, Babak J et al. (2015) A closer look at rituximab induction on HLA antibody rebound following HLA-incompatible kidney transplantation. Kidney Int 87:409-16

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