The objective of this study was to evaluate the prognosis of kidney transplant recipients with pretransplantation malignancy and the incidence of recurrent malignancy in kidney transplant recipients using claims data from Taiwan's universal health insurance program.
A total of 4350 transplant recipients were retrospectively analyzed. The rates of pretransplantation or recurrent malignancy, which was defined by their inclusion in the catastrophic illness patient registry using the International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision, were evaluated. Cox proportional hazard regression and Kaplan-Meier curves were used for the analyses.
In total, there were 4350 kidney transplant recipients, 52.1% of patients were male, the mean age at transplantation was 45.8 years old, and the percentages of diabetes mellitus, hypertension, hepatitis B viral infection, and hepatitis C viral infection were 14%, 63.2%, 4.2%, and 2.4%, respectively. There were 95 patients (2.2%) with pretransplantation malignancy. The top 3 pretransplantation malignancies, in decreasing order, were urinary tract, kidney, and breast cancers. After kidney transplantation, 10 recipients had recurrent cancer. The overall cancer recurrence rate was 10.5%. These 10 cancers included urothelial carcinoma (n = 5), renal cell carcinoma (n = 3), breast cancer (n = 1), and thyroid cancer (n = 1). Eleven recipients had a secondary cancer. Patients without pretransplantation and post-transplantation malignancy had the best survival. Patients with pretransplantation malignancy had a greater occurrence of cancers and increased mortality regardless of whether or not they had recurrence of cancer.
Our results suggest the higher risk of cancer, recurrent or secondary, and mortality after kidney transplantation. Adequate waiting time before transplantation and preventive strategies are strongly suggested in kidney transplant recipients with cancer history.
Transplantation proceedings. 2016 Apr [Epub]
H-F Chiu, M-C Chung, C-J Chung, T-M Yu, K-H Shu, M-J Wu
Division of Nephrology, Department of Internal Medicine, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan., Division of Nephrology, Department of Internal Medicine, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan., Department of Health Risk Management, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan., Division of Nephrology, Department of Internal Medicine, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan; School of Medicine, College of Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan., Division of Nephrology, Department of Internal Medicine, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan; School of Medicine, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan., Division of Nephrology, Department of Internal Medicine, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan; School of Medicine, College of Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan; School of Medicine, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan; Institute of Clinical Medicine, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan. Electronic address: .