UNOS DonateLife

June 15, 2002

UNOS Editorial: Study of Post transplant Malignancies May Advance Oncology

In an editorial in the May 2002 edition of the journal Liver Transplantation, UNOS researchers offer the view that careful study of posttransplant malignancies may help "unravel some of the mysteries of malignancies in general." The editorial, entitled "Posttransplantation Malignancies: A Problem, a Challenge, and an Opportunity," comments on recent studies of posttransplant tumors and offers insights gained from studying the OPTN/UNOS Transplant Tumor Registry.

The authors (Myron Kauffman, M.D., Wida Cherikh, Ph.D., and Yulin Cheng) note that transplant recipients have a greater incidence of developing malignancies over time than the non-transplant population, and that malignancies are a major cause of death for longer-term recipients. At the same time, transplant recipients are closely followed and certain factors that may influence development of malignancies, such as the amount and duration of immunosuppression, can be compared in well-designed studies. As a result, more may be learned not only about managing the risk for transplant recipients but about how various medical factors affect the development of malignancies.