ZURICH (Reuters) - Clinical trials have shown Roche Holding AG's CellCept drug reduces the risk that kidney transplant patients will develop cancer, the Swiss healthcare group said on Tuesday.

A three-year study of more than 13,500 kidney transplant patients showed people taking CellCept were less likely to develop any kind of malignancy than those on other immunosuppressants, it said in a statement.

Roche said the data, presented at a transplant medicine conference in Washington, challenged conventional thinking that all patients taking potent drugs to suppress the body's immune system were more likely to develop cancer.

CellCept was Roche's fourth-biggest-selling drug last year with 1.17 billion Swiss francs ($892.4 million) in turnover.

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