Analysis of neoplastic skin complications in transplant patients: experience of an Italian multidisciplinary transplant unit

Background Transplant patients need to be strictly followed, since the immunosuppressive therapies they usually receive can increase the risk of skin complications. This study aims to evaluate the prevalence of neoplastic skin complications in transplant patients. Methods We analyzed 256 liver or kidney transplant patients. The follow-up mean period was 7±3.5 years. It was also evaluated the prevalence of cutaneous neoplastic complications according to the immunosuppressive regimen received by patients as follows: cyclosporine, tacrolimus, steroids, mycophenolate mofetil or everolimus, in single, double or triple therapy. Results The 18.36% of patients developed neoplastic complications, among these 9.37% actinic keratoses, 8.20% non-melanoma skin cancer, and 0.78% cutaneous melanoma. Among patients who developed non melanoma skin cancer, 61.90% had basal cell carcinoma, 23.81% squamous cell carcinoma, 52% Kaposi's sarcoma and 4.76%, Malherbe's epithelioma. Conclusions This study demonstrated the increased risk of skin cancer in transplant patients during the first 7 years of follow-up and made the dermatologists aware about the need of a regular cutaneous follow-up for this subset of patients.