Blood test for kidney transplant rejection now available

Quest Diagnostics (Madison, NJ) recently announced the availability of a molecular blood test for identifying renal organ-transplant rejection.

The Renal Transplant Monitoring laboratory-developed test is designed to help physicians detect kidney failure weeks before conventional tests or clinical symptoms signify damage. The test may potentially improve patient care for kidney transplant patients while helping to lower sizable health care costs associated with renal transplant failure, Quest Diagnostics said in a statement.

The new test is based on the RNA genetic markers forkhead box P3 (FoxP3), granzyme B (GZMB), and perforin (PRF1) licensed exclusively from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, and Weill Cornell Medical College, New York.

"Molecular diagnostics to noninvasively detect and predict renal-transplant rejection and monitor the efficacy and safety of pharmaceutical drug therapy and treatment withdrawal have the potential to significantly improve treatment and outcomes for renal transplant patients," said Terry Strom, MD, of Harvard Medical School Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. "The first molecular test for this purpose has opened the window to new opportunities for personalized and more effective management of renal graft patients."

Dr. Strom and Manikkam Suthanthiran, MD, of Weill Cornell Medical College, have published research demonstrating that certain biomarkers, including FoxP3, are useful in detecting acute cellular rejection of renal transplants.

Dr. Strom is a paid consultant to Quest Diagnostics, and Dr. Suthanthirna is a non-paid consultant to Quest Diagnostics.

Go back to this issue of Urology Times eNews.

Related Content

Targeted kidney cancer drugs may raise risk of fatal side effects