Prevalence of cancers in Korean recipients of renal transplants

SUMMARY: Cancer is a complication in immunosuppressed transplant recipients, and is widely recognized. of the 10 029 Korean recipients of renal transplants in 1975–1999, cancer developed in 193 (1.9%). the total number of cancers was 197, with four patients developing two cancers. Only the patients with cancers were reviewed according to their age, sex, type of immunosuppression, interval between transplantation and the diagnosis of cancer, and the method of treatment and survival. In 108 males and 85 females (mean age 40.7 years), cancer developed approximately 64.9 months after renal transplantation. Eighteen patients received conventional immunosuppression-azathioprine with prednisone, and another 175 patients received cyclosporin-containing immunosuppression therapy. Twenty-two patients had skin cancers, 21 patients had Kaposi's sarcoma, 17 patients had post-transplantation lymphoproliferative disorder, two patients had myelodysplastic syndrome, and 132 patients had solid cancers, respectively. One hundred and nine patients underwent surgical treatment; 88 patients with advanced disease received radiotherapy, chemotherapy or symptomatic therapy. One hundred and twenty-one (62.7%) patients are alive, with no evidence of disease 42.2 months (on average) following the diagnosis of cancer. Another 11 patients were lost to follow up. Forty-nine patients died of progressive malignant disease, and 12 died of other causes. the average survival of dead patients with cancers was approximately 9 months (the mean survival period of dead patients caused by progressive malignant disease was 7.7 months). the time of diagnosis of cancers ranged from 2 to 240 months after kidney transplantation. We conclude that in immunosuppressed renal transplant recipients, the possibility of the development of cancer always should be considered. and we recommend follow up of appropriate intervals for signs of cancer over a long period.     

Cancer after kidney transplantation and immunosuppression

Between 1977-1998 we followed up 115 patients with renal allograft. Seventy patients had received a graft from a living donor, while 45 had received a graft from a cadaver donor. The immunosuppressive therapy included azathioprin (AZA), prednisolone (PRED) and cyclosporin A (CyA) in 90 patients and AZA and PRED in 25 patients. Nine patients showed skin malignancies (7.3%), three of these patients had Kaposi's sarcoma and the other six patients squamous or basal cell carcinoma. All cases were clinically and histologically confirmed. Squamous or basal cell carcinoma occurred mostly on the head and was radiosensitive, though recurrences might be observed. Kaposi's sarcoma was localized on either the lower extremities or the face. The condition of two patients treated by radiotherapy only partially improved. Due to chronic renal allograft rejection immunosuppressive therapy was withdrawn in two patients and dialysis was restarted without any other recurrence of the sarcoma. The rate of cancer occurrence in patients with renal allograft is consistent with the findings of other authors. Reduction or withdrawal of immunosuppressive therapy may have a beneficial effect on malignancy, but incurs the risk of losing the allograft.     

Treatment of oropharyngeal cancer in renal transplant recipients without cessation of immunosuppressive therapy

INTRODUCTION: Renal transplantation and immunosuppression are associated with an increased incidence of malignancy. Reduction or cessation of immunosuppressive therapy has been advocated in these cases to prevent tumor progression and recurrence. We evaluated the outcome of treatment of oropharyngeal cancer (OC) after renal transplantation without cessation of immunosuppressive therapy. METHODS: The database of patients with OC after renal transplantation was analyzed with respect to age, sex, type of immunosuppression, interval between transplantation and diagnosis of cancer, as well as method of treatment and survival. RESULTS: Thirty one (2.06%) renal transplant recipients developed malignancy including 6 (20%) with OC. Lingual cancer was seen in three, and one each showed an isolated tonsillar lymphoma, a parotid carcinoma, or a carcinoma of the larynx with only the last having had two other malignancies in the past. Three subjects were on immunosuppression with azathioprine and prednisolone, and the others were prescribed cyclosporine and prednisolone. Average time from transplantation to diagnosis of OC was 106 months. The interval was the shortest (2 years) for tonsillar lymphoma in an 18-year-old patient who received cyclosporine and showed features of left follicular tonsillitis. The patient with advanced carcinoma of the larynx did not receive any treatment and succumbed within 3 months. The dose of cyclosporine was reduced in the lymphoma case but immunosuppression was not altered in the other patients. All subjects were treated with a standard protocol. During a mean follow-up of 33 months, one had local recurrence of parotid carcinoma and the others showed well functioning renal grafts. CONCLUSION: Comprehensive treatment of OC after renal transplantation without withdrawing the immunosuppression prolonged the life of these patients with functioning grafts.     

Neoplasia in patients with chronic renal failure on long-term dialysis.

Out of 67 patients accepted for maintenance dialysis (56 for hemodialysis and 11 for peritoneal dialysis) 47 had not received any form of immunosuppression either in connection with renal transplantation or as part of the therapy for their intrinsic renal disease. Six out of the 47 patients (12.8%) were found to have malignancies which were not directly causing their renal failure. Two patients had carcinomas of the kidney, 2 patients had skin cancers, 1 patient had a carcinoma of the stomach and 1 patient had a carcinoid tumour of the small intestine. This raises the question whether prolongation of uremia by long term dialysis may contribute to the development of malignancy by increasing longevity in the chronically immunosuppressed uremic state.     

Renal transplantation done safely without prior chronic dialysis therapy

The complications, cost, and inconvenience associated with pretransplant hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis would be minimized if transplantation were instituted without prior dialysis. That preuremic transplantation is safe and efficacious in patients with immanent end-stage renal disease has not been established. All 1742 consecutive primary renal transplants performed at the University of Minnesota during the 16.5 year period from January 1968 through July 1984 were reviewed to determine whether graft and patient survival were adversely affected by transplantation prior to dialytic therapy. In the overall group of primary renal transplants, no differences in actuarial graft or patient survival were noted with or without prior dialysis. Likewise, outcome was not affected by the pretransplant dialysis status in recipients of allografts from HLA-identical mismatched living-related donors. However, in cadaveric transplantation graft function appeared to be adversely affected by transplantation prior to dialysis, with 52% vs. 66% two-year graft function for nondialyzed vs. chronically dialyzed recipients, respectively (P = 0.15). Patient survival was significantly (P = .04) decreased in the nondialyzed group, with 66% vs. 80% two-year survival in the chronic dialysis group. However, nearly all of the nondialyzed, cadaveric recipients were diabetic. The outcome of transplantation was found to be identical in these patients, as compared with chronically dialyzed diabetic recipients of cadaveric grafts. Thus, the apparent detrimental effect of predialytic transplantation in the cadaver group was due to the preponderance of diabetics in the nondialyzed group. Since July 1984, a single-armed therapeutic trial of combination therapy with azathioprine, prednisone, antilymphoblast globulin (ALG), and cyclosporine has been undertaken, Since that time, 36 primary graft recipients were transplanted prior to dialysis. Of these 36, 35 currently have a functioning graft. Thus, transplantation prior to chronic dialysis is safe irrespective of donor source, or choice of immunosuppressive agents.     

Preemptive Kidney Transplantation—A Team Experience in Uruguay

Kidney transplantation is the best treatment for end-stage chronic renal disease. In Uruguay, the prevalence of patients on dialysis is 757 patients per millon inhabitants, plus 316 alive with a functioning renal graft. We install a preemptive renal transplantation program. Twenty-five patients received grafts without dialysis from 2004 to 2013, 5 receiving their 2nd transplantation and 17 from cadaveric donors, with 7.4 ± 7.7 months in the waiting list. At 24 months, patients' survival rate was 100% and the grafts' 97%, with a serum creatinine of 1.4 ± 0.6 mg%. The developed programs of dialysis and renal health care contributed install our preemptive kidney transplantation. Kidney transplantation should be proposed to selected patients with chronic renal failure as primary therapy of substitution of renal function.     

Long-term outcome of focal segmental glomerulosclerosis after Japanese pediatric renal transplantation

Focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) is known to recur in some patients after renal transplantation. Over a prolonged period, we followed 13 pediatric patients with FSGS who had undergone transplantation from living-related donors, analyzing risk factors for recurrent disease. Native nephrectomies were performed bilaterally in all patients at least 1 month prior to transplantation. Immunosuppressive therapy consisted of cyclosporine (CyA), mizoribine, prednisone, and antilymphocytic globulin or deoxyspergualin. We examined age at onset, time in months between diagnosis and end-stage disease (dialysis or transplantation), the duration of dialysis, age at transplantation, time since nephrectomy, doses of immunosuppressive agents, and HLA mismatch. Five patients (42.8%) developed recurrent disease in the graft; all showed proteinuria within 24 h of transplantation. However, all allografts have functioned well for 34–156 months following transplantation despite the recurrences, although 1 of these patients now shows proteinuria. The remaining 8 patients have had no recurrence for 104.6±30.4 months (mean±SD). The serum level of creatinine in patients with recurrence and without recurrence was 1.1±0.42 mg/dl and 0.98±0.29 mg/dl, respectively. The interval from diagnosis to initiation of dialysis was significantly shorter in patients with recurrence than those without recurrence (P<0.05), but no other variables differed between these two groups. No recurrence of FSGS was observed in the protocol biopsy at 100 days after transplantation. We believe that CyA and native nephrectomy may limit or reverse progression of recurrent FSGS in renal allografts of Japanese pediatric patients, although this is a limited study. Received: 22 December 2000 / Revised: 6 September 2001 / Accepted: 10 September 2001     

Mismatched living, related donor renal transplantation: a prospective, randomized study

A prospective, randomized study of 49 mismatched living, related donor renal transplants was undertaken to compare the effect of donor-specific transfusions (DST) combined with conventional immunosuppressive therapy (azathioprine, prednisone, and antilymphoblast globulin) to cyclosporine and prednisone with and without use of prior DST. The results demonstrated that cyclosporine and prednisone without DST have equal patient and graft survival rates after transplantation and an equal incidence of infectious complications and rejection episodes when compared with recipients who received DST and conventional therapy. Patients who received DST and subsequent cyclosporine had poor graft survival rates with more rejection episodes and infectious complications. Hospitalization and the relative cost of transplantation were decreased when recipients received cyclosporine without prior DST. It is concluded that cyclosporine allows easier access to transplantation, is more cost effective in the initial posttransplant period, and does not subject the recipient to the risk of donor sensitization as is seen with DST recipients given conventional therapy. The nephrotoxic side effects of cyclosporine have been minimal and renal function remains excellent in the recipients treated with cyclosporine.     

肾移植术后并发泌尿系统肿瘤的相关因素与临床干预

目的:探讨肾移植术后并发泌尿系统肿瘤的相关因素与临床干预措施.方法:报告9例(10次)此种患者的临床资料.9例肾移植术后均行免疫抑制治疗.肿瘤均发生在自体肾、输尿管和膀胱:肾透明细胞癌、肾肉瘤和膀胱腺癌各1例,肾盂输尿管膀胱移行细胞癌6例,其中1例先发生膀胱腺癌后又发生肾盂输尿管移行细胞癌.肿瘤发生于移植术后8～146个月,且8例发生在应用新型免疫抑制剂之后.患者均有服用龙胆泻肝丸或冠心苏合丸史.8例接受了根治性手术,1例未能手术切除.结果:9例随访8～44个月,未能手术切除1例于术后5个月肝转移死亡.1例肉瘤复发后放弃治疗后死亡.1例膀胱肿瘤复发,行膀胱全切腹壁造瘘术,1例腺癌已出现肺和胸膜转移.另5例最后随访时存活良好.结论:肾移植术后并发泌尿系统肿瘤以移行细胞癌为多;可能与服用含马兜铃的中药和应用新型免疫抑制剂有关;根治性手术治疗、减少免疫抑制剂用量和更换免疫抑制剂种类是主要临床干预措施.     

Intravenous immunoglobulin as a treatment for BK virus associated nephropathy: one-year follow-up of renal allograft recipients

BK virus associated nephropathy (BKVAN) has emerged as an important cause of renal allograft dysfunction and graft loss. Although several treatment strategies have been proposed, the rate of graft loss remains high. We studied the outcome of renal transplant patients with BKVAN treated with IVIG. After 11.4 +/- 3.9 months (mean +/- SEM) from the time of transplantation, 8 renal allograft recipients were diagnosed with BKVAN. In addition to a reduction of immunosuppressive therapy, patients received 2 g/kg IVIG. After a mean follow-up of 15 months, all except one patient are currently off dialysis. In summary, after IVIG therapy, 88% of patients still have functioning grafts, although renal function continues to be impaired. The benefit of concomitant IVIG and reduction of immunosuppressive therapy in BKVAN needs to be further addressed in randomized, multicentered trials.     

Anticancer effect of sirolimus in renal allograft recipients with de novo malignancies

The inhibition of mTOR is a target for anticancer drugs in posttransplant malignancies. The influence of conversion to sirolimus after malignancy diagnosis was investigated on patient and renal allograft survivals. The 20 renal allograft recipients (4 women, 16 men) of ages 26 to 73 years (mean, 59 years) developed malignancies within 6 to 172 months (mean, 53 months) after transplantation. Three patients developed posttransplant lymphoproliferative disease (PTLD); four, Kaposi sarcoma, three, lung cancer; two, malignant melanoma; two, breast cancer; two, renal cell carcinoma; one, Merkel cell carcinoma; one, cutaneous T-cell lymphoma; one, larynx cancer; and one, gingival cancer. After tumor diagnosis, calcineurin inhibitors, azathioprine, or mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) were discontinued abruptly and sirolimus introduced (2 mg/d; target trough level, 4.0 to 8.0 ng/mL). Prednisone was maintained. The observation time of sirolimus therapy was 4 to 48 months (mean, 14 months). Two patients with PTLD (large B-cell lymphoma) and four with Kaposi sarcoma had full regressions. Eleven patients (larynx cancer, melanoma, breast cancer, T-cell lymphoma, renal cell carcinoma, Merkel cell carcinoma, and skin lymphoma) in addition to sirolimus therapy, underwent oncologic treatment, namely, surgery and/or chemotherapy. Six patients died from disseminated malignancy 4 to 9 months after conversion. One patient with T-cell lymphoma lost his graft; in the remaining patients, serum creatinine level was stable. In conclusion, Conversion to sirolimus resulted in regression of large B-cell lymphoma and Kaposi sarcoma. In patients with advanced or disseminated malignancy, the tumors progressed. Graft function was preserved after conversion to sirolimus.     

The Risk of Tumour Recurrence in Patients Undergoing Renal Transplantation for End-stage Renal Disease after Previous Treatment for a Urological Cancer: A Systematic Review

Context

Renal transplantation is the gold standard renal replacement therapy in end-stage renal disease owing to its superior survival and quality of life compared with dialysis. When the potential recipient has a history of cancer, the waiting period before renal transplantation is usually based on the Cincinnati Registry.

Maligne Neoplasien und Nierentransplantation

Together with cardiovascular disorders and metabolic changes, malignant diseases are considered as great challenges in clinical transplantation. As far as long-term function of transplanted organs is concerned, an impact of malignancies is obvious. However, it is important to distinguish between neoplastic disease originating from preexisting lesions in the transplanted organs and de novo graft tumors. Further, there is also a high risk of developing malignant disease during the dialysis, likely due to potential harmful metabolic changes associated with this procedure. After curative management of tumors in such patients, an interval of 2 years for surveillance should be adhered to before patients are put back on the waiting list. The overall risk of transmission of a malignant disease with the transplanted graft has been considered to be as low as <0.2%. In this context, and considering the continual shortage of donated organs, there is an international consensus about the use of kidney grafts with a history of small tumors (<2 cm in diameter und low-grade, i.e., G1). However, the lesions should have been removed with subsequent histopathologic characterization before the acceptance of the organ for transplantation. Early diagnosis and management of de novo malignant disease in transplant patients is crucial for the prognosis of graft function and patient survival. Genitourinary malignancies are frequent among de novo malignancies in transplanted patients. Thus, there is a need for clearly structured concepts for screening of transplant patients in order to detect early malignancies. The incidence of malignant disease correlates directly with the extent of immunosuppression in patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) on dialysis, as well as after transplantation with life-long immunosuppressant therapy. In addition, also geographic factors seem to play a role in the differential incidence of tumors among different populations. For instance, the highest incidence of malignancies among immunosuppressed patients has been observed in Australia followed by the USA and Europe. This might be due to the high incidence of de novo skin cancer, which has been linked to the extent of UV exposure.     

Treatment of advanced rectal cancer in a patient after combined pancreas–kidney transplantation

Background Organ transplantation is a standard procedure today. Due to immunosuppressive drugs and increasing survival after organ transplantation, patients with transplanted organs carry an increased risk of developing malignant tumours. Accordingly, more patients with malignant tumours after transplantation will be faced by general or oncology surgeons. We report the case of a 48-year-old patient with advanced rectal cancer 6.5 years after pancreas–kidney-transplantation for type I diabetes.Method The patient was treated with neo-adjuvant radio-chemotherapy, followed by low anterior rectal resection with total mesorectal excision. Consecutively, a solitary hepatic metastasis, a solitary pulmonary metastasis and a chest wall metastasis were resected over the course of 13 months.Result The patient eventually died of metastasized cancer 32 months after therapy had been initiated, his organ grafts functioning well until his death.Conclusion Our case report provides evidence that transplantation patients should receive standard oncology treatment, including neo-adjuvant treatment, so long as their general condition and organ graft functions allow us to do so, although a higher degree of morbidity might be encountered.     

Clinical presentations and outcome analysis of renal transplant in elderly patients——A single center retrospective study

Objective To analyze the characteristics and prognosis of elderly renal transplant recipients. Methods The authors included 130 recipients older than or equal to 60 years at the time of operation in elderly group, and the paired 130 patients receiving contralateral renal transplants from the same donors and younger than 60 years in control group. All the patients received renal transplant in Kidney Disease Center of the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University from Nov 1994 to Dec 2013. Results The average age of the patients of elderly group was (63±3) years old, whereas the patients in control group were (41±10) years old. There was no significant difference in sex, type of dialysis, number of mismatched HLA, level of panel reactive antibodies (PRA), percentage of receiving induction therapy or immunosuppressive regimen between elderly group and control group, except that the patients in old group had a longer duration of dialysis. The patients of elderly group had a lower level of serum creatinine than control at the follow up times from 6 months to 24 months after transplant. The doses of immunosuppressives were lower in elderly group compared with the control group whereas the concentration of tacrolimus or cyclosporine was same. The dose of prednisone in old group was lower compared with control after 6 months post - transplantation. The patients of elderly group had high percentages of pulmonary infection and new-onset diabetes mellitus compared with the control group. Until June 2014, the follow-up rate of all patients was 85.4%; the median follow-up time was 70.4 months in elderly group and 79.9 months in control group. There was no significant differencein mortality rate or graft loss rate between elderly group and control group. Pulmonary infection (HR=2.981, P=0.018), hepatitis C virus infection (HR=5.797, P=0.003) and malignancies (HR=5.228, P=0.005) were correlated with the survival rate of the elderly group. Conclusions Elderly renal transplant recipients have a similar prognosis compared with the younger ones. Pulmonary infection, hepatitis C virus infection and malignancy are related risk factors for the survival rate of elderly patients.     

不同免疫抑制方案对肾移植受者和移植肾存活的影响

目的回顾单中心近28年肾移植受者资料,分析探讨不同免疫抑制方案对移植受者和移植肾存活的影响。方法1977年10月至2004年12月,中国人民解放军总医院总共为1804例终末期肾病患者施行了2037例肾移植手术。根据临床资料和截止2005年底的随访结果,采用Kaplan-Meier方法计算人、肾存活率,并按照Terasaki公式计算移植物的半数生存期,分析各种免疫抑制方案对移植肾和移植受者存活的影响。结果以钙调素抑制剂（CNI）为基础的免疫抑制药物治疗显著提高了移植受者和移植肾的存活率,术后1、5、10和15年受者存活率分别为95．9％、89．1％、80．5％和73．0％;移植肾存活率分别为92．7％、80．4％、64．9％和54．1％。与无CNI类药物治疗相比,受者和移植肾的同期存活率差异具有统计学意义（均P〈0．0001）。在CNI为基础的三联药物治疗方案中,采用环孢素＋霉酚酸酯＋泼尼松方案者移植肾1、5、10年存活率高于采用环孢素＋硫唑嘌呤＋泼尼松方案者（1年94．3％比86．4％,5年90．9％比70．6％,10年71．3％比56．5％,均P〈0．0001）。结论以CNI为基础的三联药物治疗方案显著改善了肾移植受者和移植物的存活,特别是以他克莫司为基础的或包含霉酚酸酯的治疗方案对改善肾移植受者和移植物的存活具有重要作用。     

Efficacy of mycophenolate mofetil on recurrent glomerulonephritis after renal transplantation

Recurrent glomerulonephritis in transplanted kidneys is not rare despite classical immunosuppressive drugs and depends on the etiology of nephropathy. Treatment of recurrence of renal disease on graft remains controversial. We report 6 cases of patients with recurrent glomerulonephritis after renal transplantation treated with mycophenolate mofetil (MMF). The glomerular diseases were Wegener's granulomatosis (n = 1), membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis type I (n = 1), focal and segmental glomerular sclerosis (n = 1), membranous glomerulonephritis (idiopathic membranous nephropathy (n = 1) and systemic lupus erythematous) (n = 1)) and immunoglobulin A nephropathy (n = 1). MMF was introduced because of intolerance of classical immunosuppressive treatment in 2 cases and because of its inefficiency in the other cases. MMF was introduced between 3 months and 36 months (13.5 +/- 7 months) after recurrence of the primitive glomerulonephritis. During combined MMF/cyclosporine/prednisone therapy, only 3 patients responded to MMF. MMF was disrupted precociously in 1 out of 3 patients who stabilized renal function because of discovery of lung cancer and in 2 out of the 3 other patients because of gastrointestinal intolerance and severe anemia. We supposed that MMF could represent a new effective alternative therapy of recurrent glomerulonephritis on renal graft in some cases.     

Hepatitis C Virus Infection After Renal Transplantation

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is the main cause of liver disease after renal transplantation. Most patients have seroconverted on dialysis to positive RNA. The viral load increases during immunosuppressive therapy. The risk of developing chronic liver disease is related to the histopathologic findings, duration and severity of the disease, immunosuppression, and transplantation time. Hepatitis C virus infection can predict onset, of proteinuria and diabetes. We studied 868 patients who received renal transplants between (1987 and 2006), of whom 18.7% were seropositive for HCV. We observed a higher rate of HCV-seropositive patients related to the duration of hemodialysis therapy. Of the HCV seropositive patients, 77% had received renal allografts before 1998. There was no difference between the sexes; however, the HCV positive patients were younger. Polymerase chain reaction tests results were positive in 91.6% of the patients with HCV antibodies. The prevalence of diabetes was greater among HCV positive patients, as was as the persistence of proteinuria. Cryoglobulins were positive in 30.8%. The incidence of acute rejection episodes in the first year was similar between groups. Of the HCV-positive patients, 80.2% were treated with cyclosporine, most patients continued this therapy throughout the study. We observed no significant difference in mortality end graft survival rate between the two groups. However, renal function differed significantly at some points during the evolution of the clinical course. Renal transplantation is still the best treatment option in patients with chronic renal disease.     

肾移植术后并发自体泌尿系统恶性肿瘤22例的临床分析

目的 分析肾移植受者并发自体泌尿系统恶性肿瘤的临床特征.方法 回顾性分析单中心1945例肾移植受者的临床资料,其中发生自体泌尿系统恶性肿瘤22例(发生率为1.13％),占所有恶性肿瘤的56.4 ％(22/39).22例中肾乳头状腺癌、肾乳头状细胞癌、肾血管肉瘤各1例;肾盂移行细胞癌1例,肾盂输尿管移行细胞癌6例,输尿管移行细胞癌7例,肾盂输尿管膀胱移行细胞癌1例;膀胱恶性肿瘤4例(包括膀胱移行细胞癌3例、膀胱交界恶性肿瘤1例).22例中,以肉眼血尿为主要症状者17例,2例反复出现镜下血尿,只有3例无明显临床症状.患者的发病年龄为(54.3±12.3)岁,诊断肿瘤的中位时间为移植术后53个月.10例采用环孢素A+硫唑嘌呤+泼尼松预防排斥反应,12例采用环孢素A+吗替麦考酚酯+泼尼松.所有患者均接受手术治疗,其中3例肾脏恶性肿瘤患者接受了根治性肾切除手术,15例肾孟、输尿管肿瘤患者接受患侧肾、输尿管切除并膀胱袖状切除,4例膀胱恶性肿瘤患者中,3例接受经尿道膀胱肿瘤电切术,1例行膀胱部分切除术.结果 随访2～97个月,死亡9例,死亡时间为肿瘤手术后6～97个月,死亡原因为骨转移1例,肺转移1例,脑转移2例,肝转移2例,全身广泛转移3例.随访截止时存活13例,存活时间最长者为单纯膀胱肿瘤患者,存活92个月,存活超过4年者4例,存活超过1年者5例.结论 自体泌尿系统恶性肿瘤是肾移植术后的一个重要并发症;无痛性肉眼血尿是最常见的症状;根治性手术切除是最主要的治 疗手段.     

Conversion to rapamycin immunosuppression for malignancy after kidney transplantation: case reports

INTRODUCTION: Malignancies are a well-known complication of immunosuppressive therapy among renal transplant recipients, representing an important cause of long-term morbidity and mortality. Rapamycin has been shown to limit the proliferation of a number of malignant cell lines in vivo and in vitro. METHODS: Eight patients developed the following malignancies after kidney transplantation (mean 102.6 months; range 12 to 252): metastatic gastric cancer (n = 1), metastatic colon cancer (n = 1), bilateral nephrourothelioma (n = 1), skin cancer (n = 1), Kaposi's sarcoma (n = 2), posttransplant lymphoproliferative disorder (PTLD) (n = 2). After the diagnosis of malignancy, the patients were switched from calcineurin inhibitor-based immunosuppression to rapamycin (monotherapy, n = 2), associated with steroids (n = 4) or mycophenolate mofetil (n = 2). RESULTS: Both patients with metastatic cancer underwent chemotherapy and then succummbed after 6 and 13 months. After a mean follow-up of 20.3 months (range 2 to 47), the remaining six patients are free from cancer disease. Renal graft function was unchanged from diagnosis throughout the follow-up. CONCLUSION: Our observations suggested that rapamycin-based immunosuppression offered the possibility of regression of nonmetastatic tumors. Nevertheless, it is difficult to assess whether tumor regression was attributed to Rapamycin treatment or to the reduced immunosuppression.