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The incidence of post‐transplant malignancies in kidney transplant recipients treated with Rituximab
Author(s) -
Bachelet Thomas,
Visentin Jonathan,
Davis Philippine,
Taton Benjamin,
Guidicelli Gwendaline,
Kaminski Hannah,
Merville Pierre,
Couzi Lionel
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
clinical transplantation
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.918
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1399-0012
pISSN - 0902-0063
DOI - 10.1111/ctr.14171
Subject(s) - medicine , rituximab , immunosuppression , azathioprine , kidney transplantation , incidence (geometry) , gastroenterology , transplantation , immunology , oncology , lymphoma , physics , optics , disease
Background Rituximab has been proposed as induction therapy in kidney transplant recipients (KTRs) with preformed donor‐specific antibodies (DSA) or a positive flow cross‐match. We here evaluated whether adding rituximab was associated with a higher incidence of post‐transplant malignancies (PTM) due to greater immunosuppression. Patients and Methods Forty‐eight HLA‐sensitized KTRs received induction therapy with anti‐thymocyte globulin (ATG) and rituximab because of preformed DSA or a positive flow cross‐match (RTX group). They were compared with a control group of 154 patients receiving ATG alone. Results Thirty‐nine of 202 (19.3%) patients developed PTM; the rate was similar in the RTX and no‐RTX groups (14.6% vs. 20.8%, respectively, P = .3). The distributions of the types of cancer were similar between the two groups, with the majority being non‐melanoma skin cancer (NMSC, n = 24). The risk factors for PTM were male gender, age, history of cancer, and azathioprine. Conclusion Our data do not indicate a higher rate of post‐transplantation de novo malignancies after kidney transplantation in high‐immunological risk patients who received induction therapy based on ATG and rituximab.