Post-Transplant Lymphoproliferative Disorder in Kidney Transplant Recipients: A Single-Center Experience in Japan

Post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder is a serious complication of solid organ transplantation; however, few large studies have been performed in Asian institutions. We review our single-center experience with post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder patients in Japan. We retrospectively evaluated patients with post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder following kidney transplantation between January 1985 and December 2013. The patients were divided into early-onset post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder (<1 year) and late-onset post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder (≥1 year) groups. Thirteen patients had the disorder, an incidence rate of 0.75% (13/1730). Early-onset post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder (N = 3) had not occurred for the last two decades. In the late-onset group (N = 10), the median time of onset was 108.7 months. The Kaplan-Meier 10-year overall survival rates were 76.9% and 95.4% in patients with and without the disorder, respectively (P = 0.0001). Post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder significantly affected transplant recipients' mortality. Late-onset occurred even > 10 years after transplantation; therefore, long-term monitoring of patients is needed.