[Malignant neoplastic pathology in patients given a kidney transplant]

The incidence of malignant neoplasms in patients subjected to pharmacological immunosuppression following kidney transplantation is higher than that observed in the control population at large. In our unit, in a study population of 451 patients undergoing a total of 462 kidney transplants over the period from 1968 to 1986, four malignant neoplasms (0.9%) were observed in 3/369 (0.8%) patients treated with azathioprine (1 ovarian papilliferous cystoadenoma, 1 embryonal carcinoma of the testicle and 1 Kaposi's sarcoma) and in 1/93 (1.1%) patients treated with cyclosporin (1 Kaposi's sarcoma). The neoplasm was successfully controlled only in the first case after bilateral extended adnexectomy.