Cumulative Doses of T-Cell Depleting Antibody and Cancer Risk after Kidney Transplantation

T-cell depleting antibody is associated with an increased risk of cancer after kidney transplantation, but a dose-dependent relationship has not been established. This study aimed to determine the association between cumulative doses of T-cell depleting antibody and the risk of cancer after kidney transplantation. Using data from the Australian and New Zealand Dialysis and Transplant Registry between 1997-2012, we assessed the risk of incident cancer and cumulative doses of T-cell depleting antibody using adjusted Cox regression models. Of the 503 kidney transplant recipients with 2835 person-years of follow-up, 276 (55%), 209 (41%) and 18 (4%) patients received T-cell depleting antibody for induction, rejection or induction and rejection respectively. The overall cancer incidence rate was 1,118 cancers per 100,000 patient-years, with 975, 1093 and 1377 cancers per 100,000 patient-years among those who had received 1-5 doses, 6-10 doses and >10 doses, respectively. There was no association between cumulative doses of T cell depleting antibody and risk of incident cancer (1-5: referent, 6-10: adjusted hazard ratio (HR) 1.19, 95% CI 0.48-2.95, >10: HR 1.42, 95% CI 0.50-4.02, p = 0.801). This lack of association is contradictory to our hypothesis and is likely attributed to the low event rates resulting in insufficient power to detect significant differences.