Malignancies in pediatric solid organ transplant recipients: epidemiology, risk factors, and prophylactic approaches

To review current opinions about the epidemiology, risk factors, and approaches to prevent malignancies in pediatric transplant recipients.

Recent studies looking at the risk of newer induction agents and viral etiologies are reviewed. The recent introduction of viral immunizations as prophylaxis is also discussed.

Children remain one of the most vulnerable populations for developing cancer posttransplant. This is because of multiple variables, but especially because of immune naivete and longer periods of immunosuppression. As transplantation gets more complex, with discovery of newer immunosuppressive agents and viral agents, all of these affect the incidence of malignancy in the posttransplant period. A review of the latest literature in this aspect with data from the largest current transplant databases is herein presented.