Prostate Cancer Transmitted in an Orthotopic Heart Transplant

To the Editor. —In the article by Dr Loh and colleagues1describing transplantation of prostate cancer with a heart transplant, an earlier similar report by Wilson and colleagues2appears to have been overlooked. In this report, Wilson et al described inadvertently transplanting a metastatic bronchial carcinoma with a kidney into a 34-year-old father of 9 children. The tumor progressed in the recipient despite radiation therapy and chemotherapy and eventual discontinuation of immunosuppressive therapy. However, with removal of the transplanted kidney, the advanced malignant tumor completely regressed. Another kidney transplant was successful, and the tumor did not recur. In the patient described by Loh et al,1the option of removal of the transplanted heart to cure the cancer is, to say the least, limited unless another donor could be obtained.