Diabetics given hope

Feb 12 2008 by Paul Loraine, The Journal

PATIENTS in the North East could be at the forefront of a new treatment offering hope for hundreds of diabetes sufferers.

Six centres around the country, including the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle, will receive NHS funding to develop the ground-breaking technique for people with Type 1 diabetes.

The procedure, which involves obtaining cells from the pancreas of a dead donor and injecting them into the diabetic’s liver, has been used successfully in America and Canada, but so far only 12 successful operations have been carried out in the UK.

Yesterday the Government pledged £2.3m to develop the treatment, with £500,000 going to the Newcastle centre.

Dr James Shaw, clinical leader of the Newcastle team, said he hoped to offer the first treatment in April, putting the North East at the head of the treatment project.

He said: “We’ve got a very good team here and we provide very good diabetes care. The transplant technology is still in its infancy but it can offer a real difference to a small group of people.”

The Newcastle team aims to perform between three and five transplants in the first year, eventually treating about 15 patients a year.

Only those with the worse hypoglycaemia – low blood sugar that can cause comas – will receive treatment and patients will have to take immuno-suppressant drugs for the rest of their lives.

The minimally-invasive transplants, which can take just 45 minutes, mean diabetics can live their lives on fewer or no injections.

There will be two islet isolation laboratories, with one in London run jointly by King’s College Hospital and The Royal Free, while the second will be based in Oxford.

They will be available 24 hours a day to receive donor pancreases and prepare islet cells for transplantation.

Douglas Smallwood, chief executive of the charity Diabetes UK, said: “We are delighted that Diabetes UK-funded research has proved to the Government what huge immediate and long-term potential islet cell transplantation has.

“The Department of Health’s decision to fund this programme will be life changing for some people with Type 1 diabetes who suffer from the most serious effects of hypoglycaemia.

“Resolving the worst cases could save the NHS a significant amount of money, as hypoglycaemic attacks cost £15m a year in hospitalisations and ambulances alone.”

A study published last year found that cases of Type 1 diabetes among under-fives had increased fivefold between 1985 and 2004 in the UK.

Japanese researchers said in 2005 they had successfully transplanted islet cells from a living donor but this particular technique has not been used widely.