Skin Cancer after Organ Transplantation

Organ transplantation has been performed for almost 40 years with steadily increasing success regarding long-time survival of the graft, as well as quality of life for the patient. However, graft tolerance only can be achieved via induction and maintenance of an impaired immunological surveillance. An increase of skin cancers as a consequence of the lowered cellular immunoresponse seems to parallel the overall increased long-time survival rate of organ transplant recipients. Against the background of chronic immunosuppression known risk factors like the amount of sun exposure prior and post transplantation, oncogenic viruses as well as the genetic background, and place of residence (latitude) are strongly related with the increased skin cancer incidence. The increasing incidence of non-melanoma skin cancer, paralleling a prolonged survival of patients after organ transplantation, represents a significant reason for morbidity and long-term morbidity in organ transplant recipients worldwide. The incidence of non-melanoma skin cancer in liver-, kidney- and heart transplant recipients varies from 1.5 to 22 %, 2 to 24 % and 6 to 34 % after