Malignancy following renal transplantation is an important medical problem during the long-term follow-up, so it seems that studying the risk factors and drugs’ effects on it is noteworthy. Here, we studied some features of the cancers that developed in our patients. We retrospectively reviewed all patients underwent renal transplantation and developed malignancy at Shahid Labbafinejad Medical Center from July 1984 to March 2004. The selected recipients were followed until July 2004.
A total of 2117 patients underwent transplantation during a 19-year period. The average length of follow-up after kidney transplantation was 81.1±61 months. During follow-up, 38 patients developed cancer (14 Kaposi’s sarcomas, 11 lymphoproliferative diseases, 4 squamous cell carcinomas of the skin, 2 basal cell carcinomas, 1 breast, 1 ovary, 1 melanoma, 1 seminoma, 1 lung, 1 ovary]). The mean age of the patients at the diagnosis was 43.5±12 years and the median interval between transplantation and the development of malignancy was 35 months. Among all cancers, Kaposi’s sarcoma occurred earlier (mean interval=23 months). There weren’t any significant differences between all of the cancer in sex distribution and the type of immunosuppressants. We also noted that patients under treatment of mycophenolate mofetil developed cancer faster than the others (19 vs. 52 months) (p=0.001). Ten-year patient survival was good (73%) but was lower in lymphoproliferative disorders (43%). The prevalence of cancer in our center (1.8%) was among the lowest in comparison with the other studies and this maybe the result of implementing low dose immunosuppressive regimen.