title: Skin cancer in immunosuppressed transplant patients: Vigilance matters.
abstract: Liver transplantation (LT) is a widely-accepted, definitive therapy of irreversible liver diseases including hepatitis C, alcoholic liver disease and metabolic liver disease. After transplantation, patients generally use a variety of immunosuppressive medications for the rest of their lives to prevent rejection of transplanted liver. Mortality after LT is mainly caused by recurrence of alcoholic hepatitis which is mostly seen in the patients who resume heavy drinking. On the other hand, de-novo malignancies after LT are not seldom. Skin cancers make up 13.5% of the de-novo malignancies seen in these patients. Malignancies tend to affect survival earlier in the course with a 53% risk of death at 5 years after diagnosis. We aimed to report a case who underwent LT secondary to alcoholic liver disease and developed squamous cell carcinoma of the skin eighteen years after transplantation. In summary, transplant recipients are recommended to be educated on self examination for skin cancer; health care providers should be further suspicious during routine dermatological examinations of the transplant patients and biopsies of possible lesions for skin cancer is warranted even many years after transplantation.
authors: Ozan Unlu, Didem Uzunaslan, Department of Pathobiology, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH 44106, United States.
authors: Ozan
authors: O
authors: Unlu
authors: Ozan Unlu, Didem Uzunaslan, Department of Pathobiology, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH 44106, United States.
authors: Emir Charles
authors: EC
authors: Roach
authors: Ozan Unlu, Didem Uzunaslan, Department of Pathobiology, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH 44106, United States.
authors: Alexis
authors: A
authors: Okoh
authors: Ozan Unlu, Didem Uzunaslan, Department of Pathobiology, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH 44106, United States.
authors: May
authors: M
authors: Olayan
authors: Ozan Unlu, Didem Uzunaslan, Department of Pathobiology, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH 44106, United States.
authors: Bulent
authors: B
authors: Yilmaz
authors: Ozan Unlu, Didem Uzunaslan, Department of Pathobiology, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH 44106, United States.
authors: Didem
authors: D
authors: Uzunaslan
authors: Ozan Unlu, Didem Uzunaslan, Department of Pathobiology, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH 44106, United States.
authors: Abdullah
authors: A
authors: Shatnawei
keywords: Alcoholic liver disease; Liver transplantation; Non-squamous; Sirolimus; Skin cancer