Risk Of Developing Liver Cancer After HCV Treatment

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Friday, February 4, 2011

Friday If I Had..A Solid Organ Transplant and Was Concerned About Skin Cancer

Friday If I Had.......
Once a week the blog will post a video in a series deemed "If I Had."
These videos cover numerous disorders and diseases.
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If I Had, is a video series where we get a chance to ask an expert what they would do if they had a medical condition.
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Todays Topic
If I Had ; A Solid Organ Transplant and Was Concerned About Skin Cancer -
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Dr. Thomas Stasko, MD, Vanderbilt University Medical Center
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Immunosuppression

Immunosuppression also contributes to the formation of nonmelanoma skin cancers. Among solid-organ transplant recipients, the risk of SCC is 65 to 250 times higher, and the risk of BCC is 10 times higher than that observed in the general population.[36-38]
Nonmelanoma skin cancers in high-risk patients (solid-organ transplant recipients and chronic lymphocytic leukemia patients) occur at a younger age, are more common and more aggressive, and have a higher risk of recurrence and metastatic spread when compared to these cancers in the general population.[39,40] Among patients with an intact immune system, BCCs outnumber SCCs by a 4:1 ratio; in transplant patients, SCCs outnumber BCCs by a 2:1 ratio.

This increased risk has been linked to an interaction between the level of immunosuppression and UV radiation exposure.
As the duration and dosage of immunosuppressive agents increase, so does the risk of cutaneous malignancy; this effect is reversed with decreasing the dosage of, or taking a break from, immunosuppressive agents.
Heart transplant recipients, requiring the highest rates of immunosuppression, are at much higher risk of cutaneous malignancy than liver transplant recipients, in whom much lower levels of immunosuppression are needed to avoid rejection.
[36,41] The risk appears to be highest in geographic areas with high UV exposure. When comparing Australian and Dutch organ transplant populations, the Australian patients carried a fourfold increased risk of developing SCC and a fivefold increased risk of developing BCC.[42] This finding underlines the importance of rigorous sun avoidance, particularly among high-risk immunosuppressed individuals.

Certain immunosuppressive agents have been associated with increased risk for SCC. Kidney transplant patients who received cyclosporine in addition to azathioprine and prednisolone had a 2.8-fold increase in risk of SCC over those kidney transplant patients on azathioprine and prednisolone alone.[36] In cardiac transplant patients, increased incidence of SCC was seen in individuals who had received OKT3 (muromonab-CD3), a murine monoclonal antibody against the CD3 receptor.[43]
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Squamous Cell Carcinoma
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