Cancer is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in solid organ transplantation. Nonmelanoma skin cancer (NMSC) such as basocellular (BCC) and spinocellular (SCC) carcinoma, are common in renal transplant recipients. We report a case of an SCC affecting a lacrimal gland in a subject with kidney transplantation. A man aged 75 years who had suffered from glomerulopathy since 1967 and subsequently started haemodialysis, in 1989 was transplanted from a living donor. In 2019, he suffered paresthesia and pain in his right eyebrow arch and he was diagnosed to have neuralgia of the fifth cranial nerve. The failure of medical treatment and the development of a mass in his eyelid plus exophthalmos induced healthcare professionals to perform a magnetic resonance. The latter showed a retrobulbar mass measuring 39×22×16 mm3. Biopsy revealed an SCC and the patient underwent eye exenteration. Although NMSC of the eye is an extremely rare condition, risk factors such as male sex, history of glomerulopathy, and duration of immunosuppression should be taken into consideration at the time of the onset of eye symptoms.
Keywords: Renal transplantation; eye cancer; immunosuppression; non-melanocitic skin cancer.
Copyright by Società Italiana di Nefrologia SIN, Rome,Italy.