Malignancy after kidney transplantation: still a challenge.
Long-term complications of continuous immunosuppression still remain a serious threat and are currently drawing the attention of transplant physicians. Wimmer et al. show that malignancy occurs approximately fourfold more frequently in renal-transplant recipients than in a normal control population. Besides immunosuppression, viruses probably play an important oncogenic role in transplant recipients. The retrospective analysis by Wimmer et al. suggests that mTOR inhibitors and interleukin-2 receptor antibodies are promising immunosuppressive drugs to reduce the risk of cancer after transplantation. These preliminary results must be confirmed in large, prospective, randomized, controlled trials, with long follow-up, designed to evaluate the incidence of de novo malignancy in transplant recipients.
Bosmans
J-L
JL
Department of Nephrology and Hypertension, Antwerp, University Hospital, Edegem, Belgium. JeanLouis.Bosmans@ua.ac.be
Verpooten
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GA
D006801:Humans; D007165:Immunosuppression Therapy / Q000009:adverse effects*; D016030:Kidney Transplantation; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000209:etiology* / Q000276:immunology