Organ transplantation is the greatest therapeutic advancement of the second half of the 20th century. Of all medical specialities, the pioneers of transplantation make up the largest number of experts awarded with, or nominated for the Nobel Prize.
Over the years, transplantation has fascinated the scientific community as well as the general public for a variety of reasons:
The development of transplantation has involved almost all medical specialities. In the history of medicine, there is perhaps no other example of such extensive co-operation and exchange of knowledge and experience among basic scientists, surgeons and physicians in achieving a common goal.
The progress of transplantation has forced doctors to "rewrite" medical textbooks dealing with a great spectrum of post-transplantation issues, such as the physiology of transplanted organs, the recurrence of initial disease in the transplanted organs, and the complications arising from immunosuppressive drugs, infectious diseases and cancer. Other issues raised concern maternity, child development, geriatric medicine and ethical issues.
However, the history of this amazing field of modern medicine has never been thoroughly reported in a detailed textbook. History of Organ and Cell Transplantation covers this area of modern literature. It includes a foreword written by Lady Jean Medawar who is the wife of the late Sir Peter Medawar, Nobel Prize winner and first president of the International Transplantation Society.
