Background & objective: Renal allograft recipients are more likely to develop neoplasm than general population because of long-term immunosuppressive treatment and concurrent infections. This study was designed to analyze the clinical features of neoplasm occurrence of renal allograft recipients, and the effect of radical surgery (RS) on their prognosis.
Methods: Records of 2 160 renal allograft recipients treated in our center from Oct. 1987 to Apr. 2003 were retrospectively studied. The time to neoplasm development, pathologic type of tumor, patients' survival time were analyzed to explore the clinical features of neoplasm developing after kidney transplantation. Recipients developed neoplasms were divided into RS group and non-RS group according to their treatment pattern. The effect of RS on patients' survival was estimated.
Results: A total of 33 patients developed neoplasms after transplantation. Among them,11(33.3%) developed neoplasms in digestive system. The median survival time of RS group (10 patients) was 41.5 months, that of non-RS group (23 patients) was 6.0 months. The 20-month survival rate of RS group was 70.0%, while that of non-RS group was 13.0%.
Conclusions: Renal allograft recipients are more likely to develop neoplasm than general population. Moreover, their main malignancies are liver cancer, skin cancer, lymphoma and thyroid carcinoma, which differ from those observed in general population. Early diagnosis and treatment, especially feasible RS, will improve short-term outcome, while long-term therapeutic effect needs to be further observed.