60 years after its first organ transplant, Mayo Clinic looks to the future

ROCHESTER - Sheila Maines didn't know if she'd live long enough to get a new kidney.

The 58-year-old Oklahoma woman felt crushed after doctors in that state refused her for a transplant, citing her medical history and a number of afflictions including lupus. They recommended the Mayo Clinic as her last hope.

She entered treatment at Mayo in March, where doctors told her with certainty she qualified for a transplant operation. Maines knew she could wait up to six years for a donor, but a 2 a.m. call on Nov. 18 and a hurried flight to Rochester led to surgery at noon that day.

Maines spent the last week recovering at Gift of Life Transplant House in Rochester. "It's a godsend," she said, choking up.

Saturday marks the 60th anniversary of the first kidney transplant at Mayo Clinic, and almost 70 years since the first long-term successful kidney transplant. Medical technology has advanced greatly since Mayo's first transplant, but researchers there say U.S. patients still face too many hurdles to receiving an organ transplant.

Wait lists are too long. Operations aren't successful enough. And too many new organs fail people in need. Mayo researchers hope several key projects will contribute to ongoing research around the globe to improve organ transplantation.

"Our primary goal is making sure more patients can access transplants ... and developing new treatments to address all these problems," said Dr. Julie Heimbach, head of Mayo's transplant center in Rochester.

More than 150,000 people received an organ transplant worldwide last year, according to data from the World Health Organization. In the U.S., the nonprofit United Network for Organ Sharing tracked almost 43,000 organ transplants in 2022. The majority of transplant organs come from deceased donors.

Despite record-setting numbers of organ transplants across the board, there aren't enough supplies to go around. About 3 in 10 donated kidneys go unused each year, according to the National Kidney Foundation, either from miscommunication between medical systems or long transportation times.

Patients often can't wait. About 1 in 4 or 5 patients are removed from organ transplant wait lists across the U.S. either because they've died or become too sick for successful surgery, Heimbach said.

Medical researchers across the globe are working on potential solutions, from using pig organs for transplants to 3-D printing makeshift organs and, maybe one day, growing human organs from scratch.

Mayo researchers say they're focused on several new projects that could bear results sooner.

Mayo performed its first robot-operated kidney transplant last month, following similar types of machine-assisted surgeries across the country. Mayo is also exploring how to use a type of double surgery for weight loss and liver transplants for kidney surgeries — by far the most prevalent organ in need among ailing patients. And a study started at the beginning of the year could help patients better accept new organs and cut down on chronic organ failure.

That study involves using a type of stem cell to mimic the body's natural immunity responses, quelling rejection from a person's immune system. It's still in the early stages and isn't ready for human trials, but Mayo officials say the idea is promising based on previous research efforts.

"We know there is a good safety profile," said Dr. Timucin Taner, the study's lead researcher. "We're very hopeful that this will be a better option for a lot of patients."

Human trials could begin in 2024.

These kinds of studies are a far cry from the first long-term successful kidney transplant, done in Boston in 1954. Doctors there used identical twins in the surgery — sterilization and anti-rejection drugs hadn't yet advanced to the point where patients could accept new organs, so the doctors thought a kidney donated from a twin would work better.

Mayo made its own history on Nov. 25, 1963, where doctors performed a transplant using a solid kidney from a live donor. Mayo's achievement was overshadowed by the news of the day: the aftermath of President John F. Kennedy's assassination.

Retired Mayo surgeon Dr. Sylvester Sterioff noted that transplantation had a 35% to 50% success rate until anti-rejection drugs got much better in the 1980s. For Sterioff, progress can't come fast enough.

"There are 100,000 people in the U.S. waiting for organs," Sterioff said. "Some of them will die while waiting."

Most patients wait three to five years for an organ. Others, like Maines, are lucky. She's had kidney issues for about 25 years because of an autoimmune disorder. The pain, combined with other issues, led her to quit her job as a medical assistant about eight years ago.

There were days she was so tired, she simply couldn't get out of bed or off the couch.

"I couldn't do anything," she said. "I couldn't wash a dish."

Before her surgery, her kidneys were operating at only about 20% of capacity. Maines faced dialysis or worse problems until last week, when a deceased donor's kidney proved a "perfect match," according to her doctors.

Now she can't praise her doctors enough.

"I'm trying to put it into words," she said, "but I can't."