Kidney Transplant Patients At Risk for Skin Cancer

According to a study in the November issue of CANCER, patients who receive a kidney transplant are nearly four times more likely to develop melanoma, a rare but deadly form of skin cancer.

Results from the study show that risk increased with time since transplant and that the risk was highest in men and with increasing age in men but was significantly lower in women and blacks. CANCER is a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society.

In the largest study to date, Christopher S. Hollenbeak, Ph.D., of Penn State College of Medicine and his colleagues compared melanoma incidence rates from a registry of renal transplant patients (89,786 patients) to general population data.

"Kidney transplant patients, who are receiving long-term immunosuppression," conclude the Dr. Hollenbeak and his colleagues, "have a 3.6-fold increase in the incidence of melanoma when compared to the general population" and should receive regular complete skin examinations.