Kidney transplants give most patients many additional years of productive life, but their risk of developing cancer is high — due to the need to take immunosuppressive drugs to prevent organ rejection, doctors have often claimed.
Now, a new study has found the cancer risk is driven by total immune suppression rather than specific medications – in fact, no single medication appears to increase this risk.
Evaluating data from 1983 in a randomised trial, an international team was able review trends among 481 patients over 20 years — providing the strongest evidence to date on the issue.
A total of 226 patients in the trial developed at least one cancer. By 20 years post transplant, 27 per cent of patients developed non-skin cancer and 48 per cent of patients developed skin cancer — no one treatment had a greater effect on cancer risk
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