Cancer Incidence and Survival in Kidney Transplant Patients

Immunosuppression after organ transplantation is associated with a markedly increased risk of nonmelanoma skin cancer (NMSC) and malignancies, including posttransplant lymphoproliferative disorder (PTLD) and solid organ cancer. This study sought to investigate the incidence of malignancies and the clinical characteristics and risk factors of the renal transplant patients with solid organ tumors and NMSC. We included 1017 patients who received a kidney transplant in our hospital from 1979 to 2007. Results were contrasted with a cohort of patients from the same center without malignancies. The mean follow-up of patients in our series was 10 years. The mean age at presentation of the malignancy was 61 +/- 5 years. The malignancy and NMSC incidences were 6% and 5%, respectively. Patients with malignancy had a longer posttransplant time and greater recipient and donor age. In the multivariate analysis, independent risk factors for developing NMSC were: male sex (hazard ratio [HR] 3.1, P = .004); greater patient age (HR 1.09, P < .001), longer posttransplant time (FIR 1.2, P = .004) and tacrolimus treatment (HR 4.4, P = .001). Risk factors associated with developing any malignancy were: patient age (HR 1.06, P < .001), number of grafts (HR 3.2, P = .019), tacrolimus treatment (HR 2.5, P = .035), and time posttransplantation (HR 1.2, P = .011). The mean times to development of an NMSC, solid organ malignancy, on PTLD were 7.5, 6.1, or 3.9 years, respectively. The mean survival time from the diagnosis of any malignancy was 9.6 months (95% confidence interval, 0.12-30) for solid organ malignancies and I month (95% confidence interval, 0.24-1.87) for PTLD.