Long-term Survival Analysis of Kidney Transplant Recipients Receiving Mizoribine as a Maintenance Immunosuppressant: A Single-Center Study

Mizoribine (MZR) has been developed as an immunosuppressant and is widely used in Asia. However, most studies on MZR have been performed in Japan, and there remains a lack of reports on long-term use in other countries. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficacy and safety of MZR’s use in Korean kidney transplant recipients by observing their clinical courses and analyzing their long-term patent and graft survival rates. We studied 129 subjects who had received MZR as a maintenance immunosuppressant since January 2000. Our analysis was based on the patients’ medical records from January 2000 to December 2017. The overall survival rates of the kidney transplant recipients were 100% at 1 year, 99.1% at 5 years, 96.8% at 10 years, and 92.5% at 15 years. The graft survival rates were 100% at 1 year, 98.3% at 5 years, 93.2% at 10 years, and 82.2% at 15 years. There were differences in the recipient survival and graft survival rates according to the kidney donor and the use of renal replace therapy before transplant. There were no differences in the survival rates according to the MZR dose, the type of underlying disease, or other clinical factors. The use of low doses of MZR as a maintenance immunosuppressant could be an effective means of ensuring relatively good long-term patient and graft survival rates in cases of kidney transplant.