CANCER RISK AFTER RENAL-TRANSPLANTATION IN JAPAN

Excess of cancer in patients receiving renal transplantation is well-k nown in Western countries, but information in japan remains limited. O ur study examined whether excess risk is found in patients receiving r enal transplantation in japan. Between 1970 and 1995, 1155 males and 5 89 females underwent renal transplantation in 6 hospitals, and a total of 12,982 person-years of observation was accumulated. Malignancies d eveloped in 2.6% of patients; O/E ratio was 2.78. Median interval from renal transplantation to tumor development was 58 months. The interva l in the patients receiving medication with cyclosporine-A (CyA) (medi an, 42.5 months) was significantly shorter than that with non-CyA (med ian, 95.5 months). Median age at the diagnosis of malignancy was 40 ye ars, which is much younger than that in the general population. Relati ve risk was highest in renal cancer, followed by thyroid cancer, malig nant lymphoma and uterine cancer. A distribution of malignancies was d ifferent from that reported from Western countries. These findings sho wed the excess risk of malignancies in japan with renal transplants, e specially in male patients, similar to that observed in Western countr ies, though the types of malignancy were different. (C) 1997 Wiley-Lis s, Inc.