Malignant tumors in renal transplant patients. The Scandia transplant material.

In Scandinavia, between 1956 and 1974, 2672 kidney transplantations were performed on 2272 patients. Until 1974, 39 de novo malignant tumors were diagnosed among the 1872 patients who received their first and only graft in the period, and among the entire group of patients an additional 58 tumors were diagnosed until 1978; over 1/4 of these tumors were of mesenchymal origin and of these, over one half were reticulosarcomata, and one half were cerebral. Among 566 Danish recipients who received their first and only graft in the period 1969-1974, there was a highly significantly (P less than 0.00001) increased tumor incidence in relation to the background population. A significant (P less than 0.0005) relationship was found between the occurrence of tumors and human leukocyte antigen (HLA) mismatch. In the entire material no correlation was found to the number of transplantations given to the individual patient; there were significantly (P less than 0.01) more tumors in recipients of necrokidneys compared with related kidneys; and there was a significant (P less than 0.006) overrepresentation of recipients with chronic interstitial nephritis.