Just how stable is allograft tolerance?

High-risk cutaneous malignancies and immunosuppression: Challenges for the reconstructive surgeon in the renal transplant population

Renal transplantation is the most frequently performed transplant procedure. Immunosuppressive therapies have dramatically increased survival rates in transplant recipients but are associated with an increased risk of skin cancers. Recent changes in immunosuppressive strategies have been adopted with the aim of reducing this challenging adverse effect. Despite these new strategies, cutaneous malignancies tend to be numerous, aggressive and associated with a higher risk of local and distant dissemination than in the non-transplant population. This represents a significant workload for transplant physicians, dermatologists, and head and neck and plastic surgeons. This review highlights key concepts in the pathogenesis of skin cancer in transplant patients, the impact current and evolving immunosuppressive strategies and regimens will have on the epidemiology, and the management of cutaneous malignancies in renal transplant patients, with particular focus on the implications for the plastic surgery community.

Steroids in kidney transplant patients

Any evaluation of steroids in kidney transplantation is hampered by individual variability in metabolism, the lack of clinically available steroid blood levels, and overall little attention to steroid exposure. Many feel that steroids were an essential part of chronic immunosuppression in past decades but may no longer be necessary in low-risk populations when our newer and more potent drugs are used. Potential differences in long-term outcome will be unapparent in short-term antibody induction studies in low-risk patients, particularly with low on steroid doses, as may have happened in the recent, well-done Astellas trial. In many studies, the evidence for the superiority of mycophenolate (MMF) and tacrolimus (TAC) was not as strong as the evidence for the benefit of steroids in the Canadian cyclosporine study. As the practice of steroid withdrawal has increased, we have not seen the improvement in long-term graft survival that many expected with our newer agents. Steroids have immunosuppressive effects even in doses that are low by historic standards, and side effects may not justify their abandonment.