Cancer transmission through corneal transplantation

Purpose. A retrospective study to demonstrate the safety of corneas from do nors affected by systemic malignancies in a view of keratoplasty. Methods. Using the data of the cancer registry department in a district of 500,000 r esidents, we analyzed retrospectively 143 patients followed up in the same region and transplanted between 1987 and 1995. We compared the incidence of cancer in recipients of cornea coming from donors with malignancies with r ecipients of cornea from donors without malignancies. The rate of cancer in this population was also compared with the incidence of cancer in the gene ral population at the same age. Results. Eleven patients (7%) were excluded from the study, eight of them for the presence of cancer in their medical history before surgery and the three others because of lack of information about their follow-up after surgery. Forty patients received corneas from c ancerous donors and 103 from donors without cancer. Six patients developed malignancies between I and 4 years after transplantation, and only one of t hem received a cornea from a donor with a systemic malignancy. This recipie nt developed a different type of cancer from that of the donor. The five ot her patients received corneas from donors without systemic malignancies. By comparing theses results, there was no relationship between the occurrence of malignancies and transplantation of corneas from cancerous donors (rela tive risk = 0.49, 95% confidence interval = 0.01-13.62). Conclusion. There was no increased incidence of cancer in our patient population compared wit h reference population. Based on this study, there is no statistical or cli nical evidence to suggest the transmission of cancer from donors with malig nancies via corneal transplantation, according to the accepted criteria of donor selection.