Original articleMelanoma in a cohort of organ transplant recipients: Experience from a dedicated transplant dermatology clinic in Victoria, Australia
Section snippets
Patients and methods
All patients were identified from the database of the dedicated Transplant Dermatology Clinic at the Skin and Cancer Foundation (SCF). Dermatologists with a special interest in transplant medicine operate this multidisciplinary clinic with surgical support from dermatologic and plastic surgeons.
Patients are referred to the clinic by transplant physicians, general practitioners, and other dermatologists. During their appointment, a specialist dermatologist examined each patient using dermoscopy.
Results
The study included 327 OTRs, 212 (65%) men and 115 (35%) women, including 285 renal (87%) transplants, 18 heart (5.5%), 8 pancreatic islet cell (2.5%), 6 double- or single-lung (1.8%), 5 liver (1.5%), and 4 pancreas (1.2%). One patient had a hand transplant.
The mean age at first transplantation was 43.0 ± 14.8 years. The mean duration of immunosuppression to the end of the study period was 13.9 ± 8.7 years. The mean number of visits to the clinic was 8.2 ± 8.9 (median, 12; range, 1-43 visits).
Conclusion
Our data indicate that increased surveillance and expert dermatologic management of OTR in a dedicated transplant dermatology clinic may result in earlier diagnosis of melanomas and reduce the proportion of OTRs presenting with thick melanomas. It may also improve patient outcomes, although we acknowledge our cohort is small, and a good survival profile is anticipated for the 5 patients with in situ melanomas.
Owing to the increased risk of multiple types of skin cancers in transplant
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Funding sources: None.
Conflicts of interest: None disclosed.
IRB approval status: Human Research Ethics clearance was not required.