The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 273 No 7317 p375
18 September 2004

This article
Reprint   Photocopy

  Acrobat Reader

News summary

Cancer risk is higher with some immunosuppressants

Careful selection of immunosuppressive agents is vital for transplant patients who either have, or are considered at high risk of, developing cancer, concludes a study presented at the International Transplantation Society meeting in Vienna, Austria, last week.

A retrospective analysis of more than 36,000 patients, who had received a primary solitary kidney transplant between 1996 and 2002, found that at two years patients treated with sirolimus, as opposed to calcineurin inhibitors (ciclosporin or tacrolimus), showed a 47 per cent reduction in relative risk of developing new cancers.

The study, carried out by the United Network for Organ Sharing, found that only 0.78 per cent of those treated with sirolimus developed new cancers, compared with 1.84 per cent treated with calcineurin inhibitors. A longer-term evaluation is now needed.
— Contributed by Janet Fricker who was a guest of Wyeth Pharmaceuticals