Background: The increased risk of skin cancer is well known in heart and kidney transplant recipients, but fewer data exist on liver-transplant recipients (LTRs). The aim of this study was to analyze the prevalence, clinical features and risk factors of skin cancers in LTR treated mainly with tacrolimus.
Methods: We selected LTR grafted in our hospital between January 1996 and December 2008, aged 20 years or more at the time of the study. Data were collected from the patients' medical files and with a questionnaire.
Results: Three hundred seventy-one LTR were included. The median follow-up period was 8.2 years. The overall prevalence of skin cancers was 13.5%. The prevalence of melanoma was 1.3%. The squamous cell carcinoma to basal cell carcinoma ratio was 1:3. Both the overall cumulative patient risk of de novo skin malignancies and the squamous cell carcinoma-to-basal cell carcinoma ratio increased with time postgraft. The duration of immunosuppression was a risk factor, in addition to those common in the general population. No association was found between the primary liver disease and the development of skin cancer.
Conclusion: Contrasting with previous data of the literature, our findings suggest that, for a similar follow-up time, the risk of skin cancer in LTR is comparable to that of kidney transplant recipients.