De novo malignancies in renal transplant recipients: experience at a single center in China

Objective: Post-transplant malignancies are a major cause of morbidity and mortality after renal transplantation. This retrospective study investigated the incidence and outcome of de novo malignancies following kidney transplantation in a single China kidney transplantation center. Materials and methods: Between 1989 and 2010, 1467 patients underwent kidney transplantation at transplantation center of Tianjin First Central Hospital of Tianjin Medical University. Data were analyzed for tumor incidence, clinical characteristics, and outcome. A review of the literature is also summarized. Results: After 1,467 renal transplantations, 5 men and 9 women (sex ratio 5: 9) with a mean age of 54 years (21-64) were included for malignancies, an overall incidence of 0.954%. Urinary tract malignancies represented the most frequent malignancies (57%). The time of postoperative tumor occurring varied from 1 to 133 months with an average value of 42.78 months. Among them, 4 died and the mortality rate was 28.6%. Conclusions: In short, with the increasing of transplant patients and the prolonging of survival time with kidney, the occurrence of malignancies will be increasing. This requires that we should set up perfect transplant follow-up system, and do regular follow-up and careful physical examination, do not overlook any early feature of tumor, at last achieve early diagnosis of tumor, and early treatment to improve the cure rate of postoperative malignancies of renal transplantation.