Infinitesimal odds, but deadly just the same

Man dies of uterine cancer linked to transplant: Doctors doubted disease could spread to him through donated kidney

Vincent Liew waited five years for the kidney that was supposed to change his life. Instead, the organ ended it.

The kidney came from a woman who had uterine cancer, but she and doctors didn't know it. Once her disease was discovered after the transplant, Liew's doctors highly doubted it could spread to him.

But in seven months, Liew was killed by cancer that his autopsy linked to the transplant. His death, the subject of a medical malpractice trial in which closing arguments were scheduled for Thursday, is believed to be the only reported instance of uterine cancer apparently being transmitted by transplant, medical experts say.

Men can and do get breast cancer, of course, but this is so very unusual it's one for the books. It's important to realise that there's a very low chance of getting a disease from a transplant--in 2007 just 23 out of 28,000 recipients contracted anything, just over half of them dying. But according to the article more than 107,000 people are currently awaiting an organ, lives that could be saved with a transplant. Although screening is done, the detailed results of an autopsy are rarely available in the short window of time between removal of the organ and transplantation. Mr Liew was informed of a chance of the cancer being transmitted, but it was such a small risk he chose to keep the organ. Within a few months, he was dead. The only room for malpractice I can see is that for some reason it took two months for the surgeon to be notified of the cancer found in the donor. Otherwise, it sounds like something no one could have actually predicted as probable. Still, it's sad that he died when the organ was to give him a new lease on life.