Subsequent nonmelanoma skin cancers and impact of immunosuppression in liver transplant recipients

Abstract

Background: Nonmelanoma skin cancers (NMSCs) are the most frequent cancers in solid organ transplant recipients, with a high rate of subsequent tumors.

Objectives: To describe subsequent NMSCs in a large cohort of liver transplant recipients (LTRs) with long follow-up and analyze the factors influencing it, including immunosuppressive regimen.

Methods: A total of 96 LTRs (76 male) with a personal post-transplant history of squamous cell carcinoma, basal cell carcinoma or Bowen's disease were included, with a median follow-up of 12.4 years (range, 1.5-27.8) after liver transplantation.

Results: The median follow-up after first NMSC was 6.4 years (range, 0.17-22.1). In all, 52 patients (53.1%) developed 141 subsequent NMSCs with a basal cell carcinoma-to-squamous cell carcinoma ratio of 1.8:1. The actuarial risk for development of a second NMSC was 13.7% at 1 year, 28.4% at 2 years, 49.4% at 5 years, 65.7% at 10 years, and 88.4% at 15 years. Multivariate analysis found that skin phototype I or II (vs III or IV) was a significant risk factor for development of a second NMSC (hazard ratio, 2.556; 95% confidence interval, 1.45-4.48; P = .001), whereas withdrawal of calcineurin inhibitors was significantly protective (hazard ratio, 0.358; 95% confidence interval, 0.142-0.902; P = .029).

Limitations: Retrospective analysis.

Conclusions: Subsequent NMSCs are very frequent in LTRs, and conversion from a calcineurin inhibitor-based immunosuppressive regimen to a mammalian target of rapamycin inhibitor/antimetabolite-based immunosuppressive regimen can reduce subsequent NMSCs.

Keywords: immunosuppression; incidence; liver transplantation; phenotype; predictive factors; skin cancer.