Two of four patients who received donated organs from a boy whose death was belatedly diagnosed as caused by lymphoma cancer have died while two others survived after the timely removal of the diseased organs.

The rare incident in 2007 was reported in the January issue of the American Journal of Transplantation. According to the report, the parents of 15-year-old Alex Koehne decided to donate the liver, pancreas and kidneys of their son immediately after his death in March 2007 from what doctors at the Stony Brook University Medical Center believed was bacterial meningitis

Corneas from older donors are as successful for transplants after five years as is tissue from younger donors, a national study in U.S. reported on Tuesday. The new study, published in the April issue of Ophthalmology, promises to expand the age of cornea donation to 75.

A U.S. National Eye Institute-funded study randomly assigned cornea recipients to get either younger or older tissue and found the corneas of both groups survived just as well five years later. The researchers found that tissue from donors aged 66 to 75 had the same five-year success rate (86 percent) as corneas from donors aged 12 to 65

A team of German and American scientists working on mice say a common anti-depressant drug is a promising candidate as a new treatment for cystic fibrosis.

In a study published in the journal Nature Medicine on Sunday, researchers reported that Amitriptyline, which is known in the market under such names as Elavil, Endep and Vanatrip -- reduces levels in the lung of a fatty molecule called ceramide

A 30-year-old Frenchman whose deformed face was replaced last year with a new one in the world's first full face transplantation is now living a happy and normal life.

"People no longer stop and stare at me in the street. They don't make fun of me anymore," Pascal Coler told ABC

Carbon monoxide, a toxic gas found in car exhausts, could also be a life saver, according to the newly released findings of research. At very low doses, carbon monoxide could relieve asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease leading to signs of improvement in their condition.

The gas is also showing promise for treating other chronic and acute inflammatory conditions, the New Scientist reported in this week's edition. However the odorless and invisible gas is dangerous in high doses because it is taken up and stored by red blood cells instead of oxygen. It results in insufficient oxygen transport around the body