Behavioral and demographic factors associated with occurrence of non-melanoma skin cancer in organ transplant recipients

BaCKGroUNd: Non-melanoma skin cancers (NmSC) are the most common epithelial malignancies in organ transplantation recipients (otrs). in italy, incidence rates of post-transplantation NmSC are approximately 5% after 5 years and 10% after 10 years since organ transplantation. the objective was to describe risk factors associated with NmSC in a cohort of renal and liver transplant recipients, in a single-center longitudinal study. metHodS: renal and liver transplant patients, who underwent transplantation between June 1985 and december 2015, were visited for the first time or followed-up in a dedicated outpatient clinic every six months until July 2016. reSUltS: We included 356 renal and 76 liver transplant patients. 108 otrs (25.6%) presented 299 NmSC. 74 patients developed actinic keratosis (17.1%), 36 patients squamous cell carcinoma (8.5%), and 52 patients basal cell carcinoma (12.3%). time from transplantation and kidney transplant were the main risk factors for NmSC. Higher incidences of all NmSC were observed in patients >60 years, males and smokers, while decreased incidences were detected in individuals with higher educational levels. Multiple logistic regression models confirmed that male gender (rr 3.3, P=0.001), cigarette smoking (rr 2.0, P=0.026), light eye color (rr 2.9, P=0.001) and family history of cancer (rr 1.8, P=0.042) were independently associated with NmSC. CoNClUSioNS: dermatological follow-up is important in otrs, due to the higher risk of tumors and mainly NmSC. Clinical and environmental factors, including cigarette smoking, are useful in characterizing otr with higher risk of NmSC.