I've been curious if I can still be an organ donor with a history of cancer. I only had surgery and thankfully did not need rads/chemo. I saw the posts about bone marrow donation, but didn't see anything for other organ/tissue donations. Forgive me if this is a commonly asked question and I'm repeating it.

Thanks for any input.
Kerri

I doubt it.

I was wondering the same about giving blood and found the following;
�In most cases, the Blood Service accepts people who remain free of cancer five years after the completion of treatment. The five year deferral is to protect the donor's health by ensuring as far as possible that the cancer is gone and will not recur. Five years is the period most often used by cancer doctors to define a presumed cure.
However, people with a history of cancers such as leukaemia, lymphoma and myeloma that involve the blood production system directly, are permanently excluded from donating for the benefit of their own health.�
Here on a government site I also found under "who can dontate";
"People with cancer have been able to donate tissues."
I suspect that different countries have different rules.

In the States, the American Red Cross requires 12 months since the end of successful treatment. They also exclude "leukemia or lymphoma, including Hodgkin�s Disease and other cancers of the blood" from eligibility.

Back to the OP's question on organ donation, heres an edited summary of the American Cancer Society answer:
[quote]Acceptance of organs for donation is up to each organ procurement agency and the recipient. If you want to donate, it�s OK to list yourself as a donor on your driver�s license. .. If your cancer has been actively spreading, internal organs will not be taken. But if you die after being cancer-free for a long time, your organs may be used. Other tissues, such as skin, tendons, and bone can often be used, too. Careful testing of the organs and tissues is done at the time of death.

Even if other organs and tissues can�t be used, donating the corneas from your eyes is one way to offer help to others. Almost all people with cancer (except those with certain blood or eye cancers) can donate their corneas.[/quote]
Charm

Just my opinion here, but I personally wouldn't want an organ or tissues from a cancer patient. Worse yet, due to HIPPA, you wouldn't even know where the organ came from, at least in only the most general of terms.

I have HCV, so I can never donate blood, tissues or organs so the point is moot for me anyway.

That 5 year thing is a number used by researchers and is an abstract number, mainly used for quantitative analysis.

My doctors like to use 8 years before pronouncing a "total cure" whatever that is. In reality it's probably probably whatever you want it to be.

There is so much that they don't know about cancer that it surprises me that the ACS would have that opinion. I wonder if there have been any scientific studies done to validate the efficacy transplants from cancer patients.

The ACS webpage http://www.cancer.org/Treatment/SurvivorshipDuringandAfterTreatment/can-i-donate-my-organs mentions studies 'in the literature' but does not seem to reference them. Thanks, web designers.

Interestingly enough, NIH did a press release last month on its study that the cancer risk is high for recipients.
[quote]Organ transplant recipients in the United States have a high risk of developing 32 different types of cancer, according to a new study of transplant recipients which fully describes the range of malignancies that occur. Researchers from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health, the Health Resources and Services Administration, and their colleagues evaluated medical data from more than 175,700 transplant recipients, accounting for about 40 percent of all organ transplant recipients in the country. The results of this study appeared in the Nov. 2, 2011, issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association....The researchers also found that the most common cancers among transplant recipients were non-Hodgkin lymphoma (14.1 percent of all cancers in transplant recipients), lung cancer (12.6 percent), liver cancer (8.7 percent), and kidney cancer (7.1 percent).[/quote]
NIH: Cancer after organ donation
Does not indicate whether they checked to see if the donated organs came from any cancer survivors.
Charm

I haven't checked back on this post for about a week, but I very much appreciate all of your responses. In general, I didn't think it would be allowed for someone that had mets with chemo and radiation. That's why I wasn't sure for someone who only required surgery. It's good to know that at least my corneas would likely be taken in order to save someone's vision.

Not too long ago, I saw a piece about a woman who connected with an old highschool friend on FB and she found out that he needed a kidney. She decided to donate one of her kidneys to him. It was during the removal of the donor's kidney that they found out she had cancer. In this case, they were able to remove the cancer with clear margins and use the kidney for transplant. I was really surprised. She saved his life and he saved hers in return, otherwise she may not have found the cancer in its early stages. I love a happy endning!

Thanks again, everyone, for finding the answers. Take care and wishing you all good health this holiday season!

Kerri