LOMA LINDA – (INT) – The Loma Linda University Division of Nephrology has performed its first photopheresis procedure on an adult patient. It came seven months after the procedure was performed on the first pediatric patient.

Extracorporeal Photopheresis (ECP) is a type of medical therapy used in treating patients with organ transplant rejection, and some very specific bone marrow transplant complications called graft versus host disease — or GVHD. The process removes the blood from the patient, collects the white blood cells and returns the rest of the blood to the body.

Transplant rejection occurs when a transplant recipient's immune system attacks the transplanted organ or tissue.

“It’s given me time I never expected I could have,” said Cynthia Maiberger of Redlands, the first adult patient to receive this treatment at Loma Linda University Health. “I want other patients with a similar condition to be able to take their lives back.”

Loma Linda University Health is the only institution in the Inland Empire region performing photopheresis.

Story Date: October 16, 2018