Background: Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) accounts for nearly 90% of kidney cancers. Transplantation is the best treatment for kidney failure, associated with improved survival, quality of life, and lower societal costs compared with remaining on dialysis. Thanks to modern immunosuppression, rejection rates have decreased. Cancer is the second most common cause of morbidity and mortality in kidney transplant recipients (KTRs) after cardiovascular disease. KTRs are at increased cancer risk due to chronic immunosuppression. Case report: We report a 54-year-old kidney transplant recipient without prior history of malignancy who developed metachronous bilateral RCC early posttransplant (first RCC within 3 months after kidney transplantation and second RCC after one year later). Both tumours were treated with nephrectomy. Conclusions: Early diagnosis enabled appropriate oncologic management while preserving graft function. It should also be stressed that beside graft assessment, abdominal sonography should not be forgotten in kidney allograft recipients, in particular, in certain high-risk patients (i.e., elderly, male, with longer dialysis vintage, smokers, obese, with high burden of immunosuppression including pretransplant immunosuppressive therapy, induction at transplantation, etc.).
Journal of clinical medicine. 2026 Jun 10*** epublish ***
Letycja Róg, Michał Pyrża, Ewa Wojtaszek, Tomasz Głogowski, Aleksandra Kaszyńska, Zuhier Shebani, Leszek Kraj, Vadym Matsibora, Jolanta Małyszko
Department of Oncology, Medical University of Warsaw, ul. Banacha 1A, 02-097 Warsaw, Poland., Department of Nephrology, Dialysis, and Internal Medicine, Medical University of Warsaw, ul. Banacha 1A, 02-097 Warsaw, Poland., 2nd Department of Clinical Radiology, Medical University of Warsaw, 02-097 Warsaw, Poland.