Original Article The pattern of excess cancer in dialysis and transplantation

Background.After transplantation, cancer risk varies from no increase for several common cancers to a many-fold in-crease for a number of, chiefly virus-associated, cancers. The smaller excess of cancer in dialysis has been less well described, but two studies suggested that impaired immu-nity might be responsible. Methods. In a population-based cohort study of 28 855 patients who received renal replacement therapy (RRT), we categorized incident cancers as end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) related, immune deficiency related, not related to immune deficiency, or of uncertain status, according to whether they were, or were not, increased in published reports of cancer in ESKD prior to starting RRT, organ transplantation or human immunodeficiency virus infec