Professor Sir Roy Calne, the surgeon who led a team that performed the first liver transplant in Europe, has died at the age of 93.
The operation that he pioneered took place on 2 May 1968 at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, UK, following the first successful transplant of the same organ in the USA a year earlier.
Whilst Calne was known for his ground-breaking work with liver transplants, he was also at the forefront of developing techniques used for kidney transplantation. Calne pursued a career in the field of transplantation whilst studying medicine at Guy’s Hospital in London, where he was told that there was nothing that could be done for a man that was dying of kidney failure. In 1960, Calne showed that the survival of a transplanted kidney in a dog could be extended by the use of 6-mercaptopurine (6-MP), results which he published later that year in The Lancet. As well as this, Calne also performed the first successful combined stomach, intestine, pancreas, liver and kidney cluster transplantation in 1994.
Calne was also a fellow of the Royal Society and was professor of surgery at Cambridge University between 1965 and 1998, where he introduced their kidney transplant programme. It is also notable that, whilst he did retire as chair of surgery at the University of Cambridge in 1998, he still continued to perform kidney transplants well into his seventies.
In 2020, Calne was reunited with Angela Dunn, a former patient of his that was a recipient of a kidney transplant in 1970, who was believed to be the longest-surviving transplant patient in the world. Speaking at the event, Dunn said that “before my operation I did not expect to make 30. I cannot express enough my gratitude to my donor’s family, to Professor Sir Roy Calne, all the medical staff who have watched over me and to my husband Eric”. Also in attendance at this reunion was John Bradley (Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, UK), who worked with Calne for many years. When asked about Calne’s achievements, Bradley stated that “he overcame many barriers to kidney transplantation, particularly in its early days. Perhaps most notable was the development of effective immunosuppression to prevent transplant rejection, a field he continued to advance throughout his career. For so many patients he changed their lives, and he always maintained a keen interest in their achievements”.
As well as achieving many surgical firsts, Calne was also a champion for the use of immunosuppression, becoming the first to use an immunosuppressant to prevent the body from rejecting a transplanted organ. He was also the first to introduce the immunosuppressant drug cyclosporine into routine clinical care for transplant recipients.
Calne was married to Patricia Whelan in 1956 and had six children. His son, Russel, spoke to the BBC, saying that their father was “an incredible person” to be raised by. He also added that “he was an amazing character, a slight eccentric and a wonderful father to six children. We were all very, very proud of him for everything he has achieved and done, and we’ve been to some amazing places due to his accolades”.
His family said Calne died in Cambridge late on Saturday 6 January 2024.
