Renal cell carcinoma in kidney transplant recipients: descriptive analysis and overview of a major German transplant center.

Elevated risk of malignancy-related death after renal transplantation is reported and renal malignancy was ranked as the third most frequent site of malignancy-related death. However, there is a lack of data characterizing renal cell carcinoma associated with end-stage renal disease and kidney transplantation. We retrospectively identified 5250 patients who underwent kidney transplantation at the Hannover Medical School since 1970. 124 patients with renal cell carcinoma (incidence 2.36%) were identified. Among all patients, metastatic recurrence was noted in 4.8%. In multivariate analysis, tumor stage and hemoglobin were identified as independent prognostic markers of OS, while tumor grading was predictive for disease recurrence. Apart from showing the prognostic value of tumor staging and hemoglobin, our data suggest that a risk adapted approach for early transplantation is feasible.