[Cancer following organ transplantation]

Organ transplantation is followed by an increased risk of cancer. Analysis of series of transplanted, and thus immunosuppressed patients, enables the risk factors associated with this treatment to be identified, and oncogenic mechanisms in general to be investigated. In most recent cancer studies where correct epidemiological methods have been used, the incidence of cancer among transplanted patients was found to be 3-5 times that in the general population. This was the case for most types of tumours, though the distribution was uneven with an over-representation of lip, cervical, vulvar, urological and skin cancer and lympho-proliferative disorders, most of which appear early after transplantation, except for skin cancer which appears later but increases in incidence with time. The increase in the incidence of cancer appears to apply to all kinds of organ transplantation, though so too does our knowledge of possible risk factors and oncogenic mechanisms in general. For many of the tumour types there would appear to be a connexion with virus infection, which opens up avenues of research regarding prophylaxis and treatment.