Survey About the Cancer Risk of Renal Transplant Recipients

Introduction. There is a greater risk of malignant tumors developing in kidney transplant patients. Due to this, early detection is of outmost importance, in which screening tests play an important role. Methods. We have conducted a survey among renal transplant recipients to assess individual risk factors. Results. Of 530 respondents, 55 developed post-transplantation tumors. Cutaneous tumors (36%) and kidney cancer (16%) were the most frequent. In total, 59% of recipients were over the age of 50, 61.7% were over the normal body-mass index range, 40.3% smoked or used to smoke, and 21.8% had diabetes. Five patients had hepatitis B virus and 11 were hepatitis C virus positive. Malignancies developed significantly more frequent in men than in women (P = .04). The progressing of age (P = .0001) and the time elapsed after transplantation (P < .01) also were associated with a significant increase in the occurrence of post-transplantation tumors. Conclusion. We have created a database to facilitate a more personalized and efficient screening program for immunocompromised patients.