Patient and graft outcome among Filipinos with post-kidney transplant malignancy

Abstract

Background: Improvements in the care of kidney transplant recipients (KTRs) resulted to longer life expectancy and increased survival rate. However, studies showed an increase in the incidence of post-kidney transplant malignancy (PTM) affecting the survival and quality of life of the said patients. Methods: This is a retrospective cross-sectional study among 91 patients in a tertiary referral center. The primary endpoints were patient and graft survival at 12 and 24 months after diagnosis and/or treatment of malignancy. Kaplan-Meier analysis was applied to estimate probabilities of survival. Results: The overall incidence of patients developing malignancy after kidney transplant was 1.4% with patient median age at 57 years on diagnosis. The median period from kidney transplant to malignancy diagnosis was at 7.39±5.94 years. The most com mon primary sites of malignancy seen were colorectal, breast, and renal malignancies. The overall graft survival probability of PTM patients was 98.6% and 93.6% at 12 and 24 months, while the overall patient survival probability of PTM patients was 75.5%, 63.3%, and 48.8% at 12, 24, and 64 months, respectively. Conclusions: The incidence of PTM in our study was lower compared with other countries. The overall patient survival rate, how ever, was much lower than those who did not develop PTM. Moreover, our study showed lower patient survival rate compared with other countries. Routine screening for cancers among our KTRs following our local guidelines should be adhered to. The type of cancer among Filipino KTRs were also different from what were reported in other publications. Further studies that will look into risk factors to developing malignancy after KT among Filipinos and the role of type and dose of immunosuppressant is recommended.