Immunosuppressive Drugs and the Risk of Cancer after Organ Transplantation

Improvements in immunosuppressive therapy during the past decade have brought us closer to the day when long-term acceptance of organ allografts will be routine. These achievements, however, have run up against an important limitation: death of the recipient from cardiovascular disease, infection, and cancer.1 As compared with an age-matched healthy population or with patients undergoing dialysis, organ-transplant recipients have an increased incidence of cancer; one study found that after 20 years of immunosuppressive therapy, 40 percent of recipients had cancer.2 Further burdens are to be expected in an aging population of transplant recipients with well-functioning allografts.The causes of the . . .