Difference in renal cell carcinoma (RCC) prevalence between kidney transplant versus other solid organ transplant patients.
Authors: Kainat Warraich, Logan Briggs, Mouneeb Choudry, Jaxson R Jeffery, Umar Ghaffar, Alex S Nica, Declan Carr, Aneeta Channar, Muhammad Ali Khan, Parminder Singh, Yousef Zakharia, Irbaz Bin Riaz, Haidar Abdul-Muhsin
Journal: Journal of Clinical Oncology (2025)

520 Background: The annual incidence of renal cancer is 0.02% among the general United States population. End stage renal disease (ESRD) and exposure to dialysis are thought to be the primary drivers of increased risk of renal cancer in renal transplant patients rather than immunosuppression. This has been evidenced by how the incidence of RCC in heart transplant recipients is no different than the normal population. In this study, we aim to characterize RCC incidence among kidney transplant patients (usually exposed to ESRD/dialysis) versus other solid organ transplant patients (usually unexposed to ESRD/dialysis). Methods: We used CPT codes to search for patients who had received a solid organ transplant (kidney, liver, heart, lung, pancreas) at all Mayo Clinic sites from 1/1/2018 to 1/1/2024. Within this cohort, we identified those who had been diagnosed with kidney cancer after initiating dialysis or receiving a transplant, and retrospectively extracted data related to demographics, cancer diagnosis, and transplant details. Results: We identified 10873 patients who had received a solid organ transplant (Table 1). Of these, 178 (1.76%) were diagnosed with kidney cancer after either starting dialysis or receiving a transplant. These 178 patients were of median age 56 years at time of cancer diagnosis (STD 12), 71% male, 70% white, 20% black, 4.5% Asian, 2.8% American Native. Of 5792 patients who had received a kidney transplant (with or without another solid organ transplant), 172 (2.97%) were diagnosed with kidney cancer after having started dialysis or receiving a kidney transplant. Of these 172, 156 (91%) were exposed to dialysis (107 primarily hemodialysis and 48 peritoneal). Of 4392 patients who had received a solid organ transplant other than kidney (liver, heart, lung, and/or pancreas), 6 (0.14%) were diagnosed with kidney cancer after having received a kidney transplant. Of these 6, none underwent dialysis. Conclusions: Patients with kidney transplants are at increased risk of kidney cancer compared to patients with non-kidney solid organ transplants (2.97% vs 0.14%). This supports prior evidence showing ESRD plays a significant role in the pathogenesis of kidney cancer. Patients who received solid organ transplants at Mayo Clinic from 2018-2024 and were subsequently diagnosed with kidney cancer. n % With RCC after TXP 178 1.7587% Cancer Diagnosis after Kidney HD/TXP 172 2.9696% Cancer Diagnosis after Other TXP 6 0.1386% Patients who received solid organ transplants at Mayo Clinic from 2018-2024 n % Unique Patients 10121 100% Kidney Transplant 5792 57.23% Alone 5088 50.27% &amp;Liver 332 3.28% &amp;Heart 119 1.18% &amp;Lung 8 0.08% &amp;Pancreas 245 2.42% Non-kidney Transplant (Liver, Heart, Lung, or Pancreas) 4329 42.77% TXP: Transplant, HD: Hemodialysis.