De novo malignancy after liver transplantation: a single-center experience of 14 cases

PURPOSE The aim of this study is to evaluate the incidence of de novo malignancy after liver transplantation (LT) and compare with those among the general Chinese population. METHODS A total of 466 patients who had a minimum follow-up time of 6 months were enrolled in the study. All data of medical records and follow up were retrospectively reviewed. RESULTS The incidence rate of de novo malignancy was 3.0% (14 in 466 patients). The median elapsed time from transplant to the diagnosis of de novo malignancy was 42 months (range, 6 to 106 months). The cumulative risk for development of de novo malignancy was 1.6%, 2.7%, and 8.2% at 3, 5 and 10 years after LT, respectively. The patients were all male. The types of de novo tumors included digestive system tumor (8 in 14), lung cancer (2 in 14), urologic neoplasm (2 in 14), and hematologic malignant tumor (2 in 14). Over a mean follow-up of 24 months after diagnosis of de novo malignancy, 7 patients (50.0%) died; the overall 5-year patient survival rate was 54.5%. The relative risk of malignancy following LT was 9.5 folds higher than the general Chinese population. CONCLUSION The relative risk of malignancy following LT was much higher than the general Chinese population. Digestive system tumor is the most common type of de novo malignancy after LT in China.