can you donate a kidney if youve had chemo?

[lily101]

My son was born with kidney failure last year and has recently been put on pd diaysis.
I have always been the one who will donate my kidney to him when he reaches the right weight.
i'm 32, non smoker and don't drink and i'm a great kidney match for him.
I have just recently been diagnosed with breast cancer and will have chemo in the next few months.
My son isn't expected to reach his target weight for at least another year and i will have chemo for 5-6 months
will i still be able to donate to him?

[Clark]

Best wishes, you certainly have a lot to cope with. Ask your son's nephrologist, who is presumably already aware of your intention to be your son's donor, what impact you new diagnosis and prospective treatment may have on your eligibility. I hope you have success on all fronts. Take care.

[Fr Pat]

Dear Lili,
     Hi. Sorry to hear of your troubles. As Clark noted above, your son's doctor should be able to give you clearer guidance on this. I'm not a medical professional, but from what I have read the problem is not so much the chemo treatments but rather the possibility that some remaining active cancer cells might be passed along with the transplanted kidney. For that reason the doctors sometimes insist that donors be entirely cancer-free for some years before trying to donate. It might be wise to start getting the word out now to search for alternate donors if it turns out your ability to donate is postponed.
     Keep in mind also that successful kidney transplants don't usually last forever. Many recipients may need a second transplant years down the road (10? 15? 20?), and some successful transplants fail earlier. So even if your ability to donate were delayed for a few years to make quite sure you are cancer-free, you might still be needed to donate to him at a later date.
     best wishes,
        Fr. Pat

[Karol]

Hi Lily,
Each transplant center has their own protocol, so check with your son's living donor coordinator as to what their rules are.
You've had so much to deal with, poor girl! Sending you best wishes and {{warm hugs.}}
Take care,
Karol

[WilliamLFreeman]

Lily,

You have a lot on your plate.  I wish you all the best.

Fr. Pat and Karol are correct concerning the medical consequences of your breast cancer on the care of your son.  In the beginning of living kidney donations, almost all centers automatically did not accept anyone who had had any cancer.  That is no longer the case -- many, probably most, centers now accept people as living donors who had had some types of cancers with good evidence of cure for a few years.  (I was such a donor.  Ten years before I donated, I had had prostate cancer that had been cured with no evidence of relapse on yearly testing.)  As Karol posted, please check with the center about its current policy about people who have had breast cancer.

I hope your chemotherapy goes well, and that you experience minimal side-effects.  I/we hope you are as healthy and active as possible during and after your chemo, both for your own sake and also for the sake of your son!  Even more than needing a kidney, he needs a healthy Mom.   

Bill