Immunosuppressive Drugs and the Risk of Cancer after Organ Transplantation

Abstract

Improvements in immunosuppressive therapy during the past decade have brought us closer to the day when long-term acceptance of organ allografts will be routine. These achievements, however, have run up against an important limitation: death of the recipient from cardiovascular disease, infection, and cancer.¹ As compared with an age-matched healthy population or with patients undergoing dialysis, organ-transplant recipients have an increased incidence of cancer; one study found that after 20 years of immunosuppressive therapy, 40 percent of recipients had cancer.² Further burdens are to be expected in an aging population of transplant recipients with well-functioning allografts.The causes of the . . .