For organ transplant recipients, anti-rejection medications known as “immunosuppressive drugs” help prevent the immune system from attacking the foreign organ and causing damage. Although this helps keep the organ healthy, anti-rejection medications have a number of serious side effects including an increased risk of infections and certain kinds of cancer.
Some individuals who receive organ transplants are able to come off of all immune-suppressing medications without rejecting their organ. This is called “tolerance.”
The goal of the ALLTOL Study is to follow tolerant transplant recipients to learn:
- How long liver or kidney transplant recipients can remain tolerant
- What happens in the tolerant recipient’s body over time
- If there are patterns in the body that are linked to tolerance