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Lungs from pack-a-day smokers safe for transplant, study finds
NBC NEWS, HEALTH ^ | JoNel Aleccia, Staff Writer, NBC News
Posted on 11/11/2013 7:31:11 PM PST by carlo3b
Lungs from pack-a-day smokers safe for transplant, study finds JoNel Aleccia, Staff Writer, NBC News
Jan. 29, 2013 at 4:35 AM ET
About 13 percent of double-lung transplants in the U.S. came from donors who were heavy smokers, a new study finds.
Using lung transplants from heavy smokers may sound like a cruel joke, but a new study finds that organs taken from people who puffed a pack a day for more than 20 years are likely safe.
What’s more, the analysis of lung transplant data from the U.S. between 2005 and 2011 confirms what transplant experts say they already know: For some patients on a crowded organ waiting list, lungs from smokers are better than none.
“I think people are grateful just to have a shot at getting lungs,” said Dr. Sharven Taghavi, a cardiovascular surgical resident at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia, who led the new study.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com …
TOPICS: Culture/Society; Front Page News; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 2ndhandsmoke; cancer; lungs; lungtransplant; pufflist; smokers; smoking
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This should be interesting.. I’m getting the popcorn ready.. 🙂
To: carlo3b
If you need a set of lungs badly enough to be on a transplant list, I can’t imagine there would be anything wrong with a set from someone who smoked. I would think you would take what you could get.
To: rlmorel
I know I sure as hell would take them, no questions asked.
To: carlo3b
“Honest Al’s Used Lung Company”
To: carlo3b
If I need a pair of lungs, I do not care how “bad” they are (as long as they better than mine).
That being said, lungs from a-pack-a-day smokers will mostly be need to be re-installed after a couple of years.
To: rlmorel
Ditto. As the saying goes, beggars can’t be choosers.
To: carlo3b
What does that mean? Maybe you won’t have cancer, but what about COPD?
Eagles Up! Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more!
Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; The LORD hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name. (Isaiah 49:1 KJV)
To: carlo3b
Beggars can’t be choosers.
To: carlo3b
Maybe a liver from a drunk?
A brain from a Liberal?
To: carlo3b
My mother smoked for over 60 years and just before she died the doctor said that her lungs, heart, and mind were all sound. Her skin gave out and she had rheumatoid arthritis. I think she just got tired of hurting and gradually over a couple of years, quit eating.
To: sagar
Probably not. Most smokers overestimate the lung cancer risk because it’s such a hideous way to die, but the biggest determinant in whether you will get lung cancer from smoking is a history of cancer in your family. Most smokers are actually killed by heart disease and other insidious effects of smoking that don’t necessarily impact their lungs directly.
To: dfwgator
Republican beggars won’t have a choice under Obamacare
To: carlo3b
So does this mean smoking does not cause lung cancer?
To: dfwgator
It says more than that.. The hair on fire, about Second Hand Smoke is total BS!
To: digger48
Whoa… Not so far as that… YIKES! .. 🙂
To: carlo3b
Except Kools.
To: rlmorel
Lungs heal surprisingly well.
To: carlo3b
First, cancer is not longer even treated as cancer,
but something for patients so afflicted ‘to enjoy’.
Second, Congress and their families, not even under
ObamaCARE, will get the ripest, youngest lungs
from the pick of their constituents.
To: digger48
“A brain from a Liberal?”
I’d rather be dead.
To: carlo3b
I smoked for over 45 years, and more than 1 pack a day. I quit and can breath just fine. No COPD, no cancer. I’d say we’ve all been sold a line of BS. Not all smokers will end up with horrible diseases. I’d certainly take the lungs of an ex-smoker if I needed to.
To: funfan
It doesn’t actually explicitly say that, but it does call into question many of the studies that claim that..
To: digger48
That would be a great brain. It’s like buying a used car with 5 miles on it.
To: cripplecreek
They ARE pretty vascular, after all…that would make sense.
To: carlo3b
Smokers lungs are safe for transplants….announced just as 0bama care rolls out.
To: carlo3b
It depends who are transplanting those lungs into. Somebody who is younger is probably not a good choice, as the damaged lungs would hamper them through life, but it’s more justifiable for an older person or somebody who needs lungs, but their state of health is already hampered by other medical decisions.
However, by trying to make this argument, you know they want this for everybody but the very well-to-do or politically connected.
To: carlo3b
So maybe you won’t get lung cancer. Maybe you’ll only get cancer of the bladder, esophagus, parotid gland, kidney, or whatever. I sure wish my relatives didn’t have to go through that.
To: cripplecreek
Yes they do. They are always in a state of regeneration, like a liver. I’ve read somewhere that heavy smokers, who have quit for at least ten years, have the same general lung capacity as a non-smoker.
To: KarlInOhio
Hah…all I could think of was a paraphrase of that famous Herb Brooks saying about a hockey player with all the tools except the mind to use them…something like “You’ve got a million dollar set of legs and a ten-cent fart for a brain”
That would describe any number of liberal Hollywood starlets!
Or like that old joke about brain transplants:
In the Hospital the relatives gathered in the waiting room, where their family member lay gravely ill. Finally, the doctor came in looking tired and somber.
“I’m afraid I am the bearer of bad news,” he said as he surveyed the worried faces, “The only hope left for your loved one at this time is a brain transplant. It’s an experimental procedure, semi-risky, and you will have to pay for the brain yourselves.”
The family members sat silent as they absorbed the news. After a length of time, someone asked, “Well, how much does a brain cost?” The Doctor quickly responded, “$5000 for a liberal brain, and $200 for a conservative brain.”
One of the family members asked “Why is the liberal brain so much more money?”
“It’s just standard pricing procedure. We have to mark down the price of the conservative brains, because they’ve already been used.”
To: funfan
So does this mean smoking does not cause lung cancer?My guess on resolving the contradiction is that smoking makes it easier to get lung cancer, but is not the actual cause. Similar to how AIDS doesn’t actually kill, it just makes it easier to get other infections.
To: digger48
“A brain from a Liberal?”
Let me die.
To: carlo3b
The good news is that the death panel has given you permission to get a lung. The bad news is it from a smoker.
To: Proud2BeRight
dang, its not much better than one you lost, but hey it still works.
For Sale
One Lung
Coughs, Wheezes, barely holds any air
but it works
To: Charles Henrickson
Would you want a nicotine stained lung transplant from WILLIAM RIVERS PITT?
To: Gamecock
Surprise, surprise, just as homos make a new push for their tainted blood to be accepted………..
To: carlo3b
So, presumably the donors did not die of lung disease? Do you have to die in an accident to be a donor? That is to say, if you have a heart attack, can your organs be donated (other than your hear?)? I suppose if you die of cancer they are all off limits? Or maybe not, unaffected organs are OK?
To: carlo3b
It’s all genetics. Plenty of hard core smokers out there who go through life fine. None smokers are just susceptible to the same crap that gets smokers. It’s all bs to try and control the public. I’d be more scared of these genetically engineered foods they are feeding us and the chickens were going to be getting from China thanks to the new FDA laws.
To: carlo3b
LOL! I thought the same thing and only read your post before saving it for later.
To: Just_Sue
My mom smoked 1-2 packs a day for more than 40 years. Switched to cigars (doesn’t inhale) and the doc said that her lungs are perfect. She sent her to a pulmonologist and they did a ton of tests. She’s fine.
To: carlo3b
Falls under the category of “beggars can’t be choosers.”
To: carlo3b
Smoke your way to good health! Yeah. Works for me.
To: rlmorel
Over the years, smoking has been vilified and denigrated ad nauseum.
And lost in all the hoopla is one simple and revealing fact.
Worldwide, lung cancer is the number one cancer killer.
For smokers AND NON SMOKERS ALIKE!!!
To: carlo3b
We have a smoke nazi on FR who will be along shortly to disagree with you. I won’t bother to name him, most people on this thread know who he is. – a liberal, disguised as a FReeper.
To: Just_Sue
50 years for me, same results.
I just finally decided to quit, so I did – 5 years ago.
But does the recipient need to start or continue smoking to live?
To: Graybeard58
My grandpa smoked those roll yer own (bag of tobacco in his chest pocket) and died of prostate cancer at age 87…so there’s that aspect. Lung cancer happens but not just to smokers so smoke it up and enjoy life.
To: Just_Sue
It is all a divide and conquer scam to tax the crap out of a certain segment of society.
Kinda like Obamacare.
To: All
The trick with Obama care is they tax you based on a different type of addiction.
Addiction to Freedom, Addiction to independence, Addiction to Work.
To: carlo3b
Interesting indeed. My hope is that the lungs from a smoker DO NOT end up going to some anti-smoking nazi.
To: upsdriver
That is not gonna help anyone LOL
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