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Updated: Oct 8, 2025
Mouse Model for Pancreas Transplantation Using a Modified Cuff Technique
Published on: December 16, 2017
Race does not predict pancreas graft failure after pancreas transplantation in the modern era
Zhiwei Li1, Jie Xiang1, Jianhua Liu1
1Division of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, Department of Surgery, School of Medicine, First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
Background:
African-American (AA) has historically been associated with inferior graft survival after pancreas transplantation. However, with the improvement of immunosuppression and surgical technique, we hypothesized that the racial disparity has been neutralized.
Methods:
We analyzed data from the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (1989-2018). Using Kaplan-Meier estimation and Cox proportional hazards regression, we examined the influence of race on pancreatic graft survival.
Results:
Before 2009, AA recipients had a higher risk of pancreatic graft failure after adjusting for confounding factors (hazard ratio [HR]: 1.16, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.08-1.24), but the risks for Hispanic and Asian recipients were both comparable to their Caucasian counterparts. However, the risk of pancreatic graft failure in AA recipients dropped to 1% and was no longer significant since 2009 (HR: 1.01, 95%CI: 0.88-1.16). Interestingly, donor race showed similar results. Furthermore, the concordance statistic of the complete pancreas donor risk index (including donor race) was 0.582, whereas the concordance did not change when donor race was eliminated from the model.
Conclusions:
AA and other races have shown similar pancreatic graft survival in the modern era. Furthermore, donor racial disparity also seems neutralized; thus, donor race should not be considered as an indicator of pancreatic donor quality.
