INCIDENCE AND TREATMENT OF MALIGNANCIES A FTER RENAL-TRANSPLANTATION

The incidence of cancer in patients who undergo transplantation is mor e high that general population. Between 1970 and 1995, the Madrid Tran splant Asociation, 1.699 kidney grafts have been performed. Of these p atients, 1.528 was examined, found an incidence of malignat disease th e 3%. Forty six types of cancer was developed in 42 organ transplant r ecipient. Eighteen patients had epithelial skin cancers, and 24 had na n-skin cancers. In transplant patients skin cancers demonstrated some unusual characteristics compared with their counterparts in general po pulation. Basal cell carcinomas (BCCs) outnumber squamous cell carcino mas (SCCs) in the general population 5/1, but the reverse was true in transplant recipients, in whom SCCs outnumbered BCCs by 1.8 to 1. In t he general population SCCs mostly occur in persons who are in their 60 s and 70s, but the age of transplant patients younger. This study conf irms the incresed of de novo malignancies in renal allograf reclt, pie nts and is greater in male than in female. The average time of appeara nce of the tumors that followed CyA administration is shorter than in those treated with prednisone and azathioprine.