Objective: To estimate the risk of prostate cancer transmission in relation with organ procurement.
Methods: A literature search from the Medline database using the following keywords-transplantation, prostate cancer, organ procurement, donor transmitted malignancies, disease transmission, staging, evaluation, and PSA-was conducted to select 16 articles written in English and French over the last 15years.
Results: The incidence of prostate cancer in deceased organ donors (DOD) has been estimated to be between 3% and 18.5%. There were more than 120 solid-organ transplantations performed with organs coming from DOD with a proven prostate cancer without any case of cancer transmission or death related to malignancy and only 1 case of transmission by the donor after a heart transplant has been described.
Conclusion: Transmission of prostate cancer by a transplanted organ seems incidental. When PSA is measured, it should be suspected only if the value is beyond 20ng/ml and in all cases, should be interpreted taking digital rectal examination (DRE) into account. Organs from a DOD with a DRE proving a T3-T4 prostate cancer should not be procured. Suspect iliac lymph nodes during the preparation of the vessels for cannulation must lead to the discontinuation of the procurement or a histological analysis.
Written by:
Doerfler A, Tillou X, Le Gal S, Desmonts A, Orczyk C, Bensadoun H. Are you the author?
Department of Urology and Transplantation, Caen University Hospital, 14033 Caen, France.
Reference: Transplant Rev (Orlando). 2014 Jan;28(1):1-5.
doi: 10.1016/j.trre.2013.10.003
PubMed Abstract
PMID: 24321301
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