Relation between skin cancer and HLA antigens in renal-transplant recipients

Recipients of renal allografts are at an increased risk for skin cancer. It is also known that recipients who are homozygous for HLA antigens are at an increased risk for certain cancers, as are those who are mismatched with their donors for these antigens. In a case-control study we assessed the relation between skin cancer in renal-transplant recipients and HLA homozygosity and mismatching.

Of 764 patients who received renal transplants between 1966 and 1988, 66 had squamous-cell carcinoma or basal-cell carcinoma of the skin after transplantation. HLA homozygosity was assessed in all 66 recipients, and HLA mismatching in 39; the results were compared with those in 124 recipients without skin cancer. We also investigated the relation between skin cancer and the use of immunosuppressive drugs. In separate case-control analyses we investigated the influence of exposure to the sun and keratotic skin lesions on the risk of skin cancer.

The risk of squamous-cell carcinoma was increased in recipients mismatched for HLA-B antigens; the relative risks were 2.6 (95 percent confidence interval, 1.1 to 6.5) and 5.0 (95 percent confidence interval, 1.3 to 19.0) with mismatching for one and two antigens, respectively, as compared with no mismatching. Mismatching for HLA-A or HLA-DR antigens had no effect on the risk of squamous-cell carcinoma, and there was no association between mismatches at any of the HLA loci and the occurrence of basal-cell carcinoma. The total doses of azathioprine and prednisone were not associated with the occurrence of skin cancer or with HLA matching. Exposure to sunlight and keratotic skin lesions were strongly associated with skin cancer but not with HLA mismatching. Homozygosity for HLA-DR was more frequent among the patients with squamous-cell carcinoma (relative risk, 2.5; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.95 to 4.6) and among patients with 100 or more keratotic skin lesions (relative risk, 4.8; 95 percent confidence interval, 1.5 to 15.1).

HLA-B mismatching is significantly associated with the risk of squamous-cell carcinoma in renal-transplant recipients, as is HLA-DR homozygosity. An indirect effect on the level of immunosuppression does not appear to explain these findings, nor does exposure to sunlight or the number of keratotic skin lesions account for this observation.