Renal Transplantation in Patients with Carcinoma

Abstract

Four patients in terminal renal failure who had various malignant tumours were treated by haemodialysis and cadaveric renal transplantation. One patient with a testicular seminoma and one with leiomyosarcomatous changes in polycystic kidneys were successfully grafted after removal of the tumours and both were healthy at three and two-and-a-half years afterwards without evidence of recurrence of tumour. One patient with an invasive carcinoma of the renal pelvis was successfully transplanted and remained well for eight months but rapidly deteriorated and died of extensive metastases. Another patient with a malignant melanoma died more than one year after unsuccessful grafting. The presence of concomitant malignant disease in patients with chronic renal failure need not necessarily exclude them from the chance of long-term treatment, including renal transplantation. Each patient should be considered individually from the point of view of the nature of the malignancy, its duration, and treatment. © 1974, British Medical Journal Publishing Group. All rights reserved.