Solid Organ Transplant Recipients Have Doubled Risk for Cancer

The known elevated risk for cancer among solid organ transplant recipients is attributed to immunosuppression and oncogenic viral infection (e.g., lymphoma and Epstein-Barr virus; Kaposi sarcoma and human herpesvirus 8; liver cancer and hepatitis B and C viruses). Researchers linked U.S. transplant and cancer registries to assess cancer risk in 176,000 patients who received kidney, liver, heart, or lung transplants; about 10,600 malignancies were diagnosed in this cohort.

Transplant recipients had roughly twice the overall risk for malignancy as the general population. Risk was elevated for cancers of 32 organs and systems, but risks for breast and prostate cancers were lower in transplant patients. The most common malignancies were non-Hodg…