Background: Malignancy is an important cause of mortality in renal transplants recipients. The aim of this study was to evaluate the incidence, prognosis, and survival of patients developing a de novo post-transplant cancer.
Methods: Using a retrospective cohort design, we evaluated the incidence of de novo cancers among kidney transplants patients in our hospital from January 2000 to December 2012. We also evaluated the patient survival after tumor diagnosis.
Results: We included 535 kidney transplants recipients with a mean follow-up of 7.8 years; among them, 39 (7.2%) developed malignancies. Median time from transplant to cancer diagnosis was 3 years, with a median age at diagnosis of 60 years. Male patients were significantly older at time of cancer diagnosis (68.5 years) compared with women (38 years, P < .05), and cancer diagnosis occurred significantly earlier in men (3.5 years since transplantation) than in women (8.5 years, P < .05). Among 39 patients affected by a de novo post-transplant cancer, 18 patients (46.2%) died, with an average age at death of 58.5 years. The average time from cancer diagnosis to death was 1.5 years. Among the group of patients who did not develop a post-transplant cancer, 83 patients (16.7%) died, with a median age at time of death of 54.5 years (P < .05).
Conclusions: Kidney transplant recipients are at higher risk of developing a post-transplant cancer. Prognosis after cancer diagnosis is poor, probably as a consequence of a more aggressive behavior of cancer in transplant recipients. Intensive screening protocols could allow for an earlier diagnosis thereby improving the long-term outcome of these patients.
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