Transplant Options for Patients With Type 1 Diabetes
Transplant Options for Patients With Type 1 Diabetes
Dr. Peters: What is your timeline? Can you even begin to say when this will be more routinely available for patients? My patients want to be cured, so when will we say that this is a cure?
Dr. Rickels: We like to tell our patients who participated in our experimental protocols that even when they feel like they have been cured, we remind them that they are still taking 2 immunosuppression medications each day to prevent recurrent autoimmune diabetes or rejection of their islet grafts. But you are exactly right: There are lots of folks who are very interested, and particularly in those who have very brittle type 1 diabetes and are experiencing a lot of problems with hypoglycemia who could benefit.
Our current trials with that population are nearing completion of 2-year follow-up in the 48-patient study cohort, with the first patients out more than 4 years. We hope to file this information with the US Food and Drug Administration in a year or so and move along towards a hoped-for approved treatment for our patients with diabetes.
Dr. Peters: It sounds interesting. This has been really fascinating. Michael, thank you very much. This has been Dr. Anne Peters for Medscape. Thank you.
When Will Islet Cell Transplantation Be Available?
Dr. Peters: What is your timeline? Can you even begin to say when this will be more routinely available for patients? My patients want to be cured, so when will we say that this is a cure?
Dr. Rickels: We like to tell our patients who participated in our experimental protocols that even when they feel like they have been cured, we remind them that they are still taking 2 immunosuppression medications each day to prevent recurrent autoimmune diabetes or rejection of their islet grafts. But you are exactly right: There are lots of folks who are very interested, and particularly in those who have very brittle type 1 diabetes and are experiencing a lot of problems with hypoglycemia who could benefit.
Our current trials with that population are nearing completion of 2-year follow-up in the 48-patient study cohort, with the first patients out more than 4 years. We hope to file this information with the US Food and Drug Administration in a year or so and move along towards a hoped-for approved treatment for our patients with diabetes.
Dr. Peters: It sounds interesting. This has been really fascinating. Michael, thank you very much. This has been Dr. Anne Peters for Medscape. Thank you.