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Organ Transplant Recipients Have Higher Cancer Risk

Sep 2, 2009 by TacticularCancer.com

4. Liver Transplant Recipients and All Types of Cancer

Most recently, a population-based cohort study in Canada found that liver transplant recipients were at higher risk (about 2.5 times) for cancer, especially non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and colorectal cancer, when compared to the general population. It also found that the higher risk was more pronounced among younger recipients as well as during the initial year after the procedure.

The study team, led by Ying Jiang from the Public Health Agency of Canada, looked at information from the Canadian Organ Replacement Registry as well as databases of the national mortality and cancer incidences. Persons who had liver cancer and those who had been diagnosed with any kind of cancer (excluding non-melanoma skin cancer) before or in the immediate 30 days after they received their new organs were excluded.

2,034 transplant recipients who had received new organs between June 1983 and October 1998 were tracked for up to 15 years, and it was found that their risk of any cancer was about 2.5 times that of the general population. According to the study team, this figure is lower than what previous studies had estimated, with a possible reason being that liver cancer and non-melanoma cancer patients were excluded.

“A striking finding in our study is the approximate twenty-fold increased risk of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma among liver transplant patients relative to the general population. As a proportion of all cancers, it represented 55.8 percent of the absolute excess number of cancers among liver transplant patients,” said the study team. The increased risk for colorectal cancer could possibly be because of inflammatory bowel disease being more prevalent among transplant recipients.

Published in the November 2008 issue of Liver Transplantation, the study’s conclusion was clear. “Our findings firmly support an increased incidence of cancer in this patient population.”

The Bottom Line

The findings of these and other studies differ somewhat in that they point to different types of cancer and varying risk profiles for different groups of people. But for organ transplant recipients, the message is quite clear and coherent – there is the need for them to take even better care of their bodies than the average person in order to ward off diseases.

And for the rest of us, these research results also reaffirm the importance of the immune system in fighting off cancer – any type of cancer. Reducing our intake of substances which compromise this wonderful system – this includes both from our food and from chemicals found in everyday products such as soaps and shampoos, as well as investing in top quality immune-boosting foods and supplements would thus be important measures we can take to safeguard our health.

Main Source

ScienceDaily.com

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