Kidney transplantation

Children’s Hospital Boston is home to the world’s largest research program at a pediatric institution, and we’re known for pioneering new treatments. We also have a great number of partnerships with top research, biotech and health care organizations. Several years ago, Children’s Hospital Boston partnered with the Brigham and Woman’s Hospital to form the Transplantation Research Center (TRC). This merging of resources:

• provides a rich environment for collaboration of scientists and physicians
• ensures that your child has access to the most up-to-date treatments and strategies available

Scientists in our Kidney Transplant Program are leaders in pediatric kidney transplant research, and their goal is to bring their innovations to your child’s bedside as quickly as possible.

Since 1994, we have participated in every NIH-sponsored pediatric kidney transplant research study – more than any other program in the nation. The results of these studies have led to significant improvements to your child’s post-transplant treatment options, including the development of steroid-free protocols that may allow her to avoid such undesirable side effects as obesity, diabetes and heart and liver disease.

One of our current goals is to make your child’s post-transplant life easier by reducing the number of immunosuppressive medications she must take to just one. This will not only further minimize any side effects she might experience, but it also makes the regimen easier to follow.

Current and upcoming studies at Children’s include:

• a trial that requires children to take only one chronic immunosuppressive medication after their kidney transplant
• a study designed to learn why some children, particularly adolescents, may not take their medications as prescribed, and what we can do to help them
• a study that determines whether:
• children develop antibodies after transplantation
• those antibodies cause long-term damage to the kidneys
• a new medication may stop the production of those antibodies