Oliver's mTOR Atlas Evidence Platform
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Rapamycin and human longevity among kidney transplant recipients surviving the first year.

Stewart DE, Fitzsimmons WE · 2026 · GeroScience · Atlas ID STE2026

What this study shows

In a US registry cohort of 11,474 kidney transplant recipients who were alive with a functioning graft at one year, 4,885 were prescribed rapamycin and 6,589 were not; 6,443 died during a median follow-up of 11 years. After propensity-score weighting for age, BMI, diabetes and 15 other factors, median survival age was 64.6 years with rapamycin and 64.3 years without (95% CI for the difference -1.6 to 2.0 years), so no meaningful survival benefit was seen. Boundary: observational registry data in transplant recipients who are also on other immunosuppressants and who entered the cohort only by having survived twelve months after transplant, rapamycin given at immunosuppressive doses by clinician choice; it does not test low-dose or intermittent rapamycin in healthy older adults.

Abstract

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Rapamycin, an mTOR inhibitor, continues to be investigated for hypothesized physiological, disease prevention, and longevity benefits, but few studies have been conducted in humans. Using US national organ transplant registry data, one of the largest real-world datasets examining chronic rapamycin exposure in humans, we compared the Kaplan-Meier survival age distribution of 4885 kidney transplant recipients prescribed rapamycin compared to 6589 recipients not prescribed rapamycin. Recipients were followed a median of 11 years and 6443 died during the study period.

Read the full abstract on PubMed →

At a glance

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Evidence type H Human study Marked H because it is direct evidence from a human clinical trial or human cohort; the code names the kind of study, not its quality -- a small, well-run trial is still H.
Study type3 - Human Observational
Model systemHuman (US national organ transplant registry: 4,885 kidney transplant recipients prescribed rapamycin vs 6,589 not prescribed; alive with functioning graft at 1 year; median follow-up 11 years)
JournalGeroScience
Year2026
Peer reviewedYes
Record last updated2026-10-01
SourceDOI 10.1007/s11357-026-02643-8 · PMID 42989006

Where this study fits

How this study connects to the pathway map, open questions, people and other studies in the Atlas.

Pathway relations

Points the other way on

Rapamycin activates Longevity

Strongest evidence: A (Animal model) · settled in the literature · Status: Proposed

not tested in people

The lifespan result is mouse only. No human lifespan or healthspan trial is held in this corpus and EVERLAST has no results yet; the closest human survival data here, STE2026, is observational, at immunosuppressive doses in kidney…

People in the Atlas

  • Darren E Stewart first author · 1 study in the Atlas

    First author of the 2026 GeroScience registry study of rapamycin and survival in kidney transplant recipients.

  • William E Fitzsimmons last author · 1 study in the Atlas

    Last and corresponding author of the 2026 GeroScience registry study of rapamycin and survival in kidney transplant recipients.

Related studies

More related studies

All 115 studies on Rapamycin

Topics

LongevityRapamycinKidney transplant

Cite this paper

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Stewart, D. E., & Fitzsimmons, W. E. (2026). Rapamycin and human longevity among kidney transplant recipients surviving the first year. GeroScience. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11357-026-02643-8

@article{STE2026,
  author       = {Stewart, D. E. and Fitzsimmons, W. E.},
  title        = {{Rapamycin and human longevity among kidney transplant recipients surviving the first year}},
  journal      = {GeroScience},
  year         = {2026},
  doi          = {10.1007/s11357-026-02643-8},
  note         = {PMID: 42989006},
}

Cite this Atlas record

The record is the Atlas's own work — the evidence label, the extracted findings and the links. It is cited as part of the dataset, not as the paper. 

Barton, O. (2026). Oliver's mTOR Atlas (record STE2026) [Data set]. https://mtor-atlas.org/study/STE2026/ · Dataset DOI 10.5281/zenodo.22059963

@misc{atlas_STE2026,
  author       = {Barton, Oliver},
  title        = {{Oliver's mTOR Atlas}, record STE2026},
  howpublished = {Data set},
  year         = {2026},
  url          = {https://mtor-atlas.org/study/STE2026/},
  doi          = {10.5281/zenodo.22059963}
}
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