Dermatologists with After Transplantation-Reduce Incidence of Skin Cancer (AT-RISC) Alliance are presenting a series of lectures at the World Transplant Congress in Boston, to educate the physicians, nurses and patients to be aware of the risk of cancers associated with transplants. They warn that organ transplant recipients have a much higher than average risk of developing an aggressive form of skin cancer, called squamous cell carcinoma.

Dr. Clark C. Otley, chairman of the Division of Dermatologic Surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and one of the founders of the International Transplant-Skin Cancer Collaborative, which is joining the International Transplant Nurses Society and the Transplant Recipients International Organization to launch the AT-RISC Initiative, said, "This is a very bad problem that's going to get worse as more patients undergo transplant surgery and survive."

Dermatologists with AT-RISC said physicians, nurses and patients should be aware of the risk associated with organ transplants and should carefully observe any skin growths that look suspicious, so that they can be treated as early as possible.

They explained that transplant recipients are 65-times more likely to develop squamous cell carcinoma, involving not only the skin but other areas of the body, such as the throat, vagina and the cervix.

The doctors blamed the powerful immunosuppressant drugs given to the transplant patients for the cause.

"The skin has a potent immune system, which, in addition to fighting off infection, also controls and prevents cancer," Otley noted. "Without that protection, their risk for squamous cell carcinoma is 65 times higher than in the general population."

Otley said patients may develop as many as 100 skin cancers per year.

They usually begin to develop 5 to 7 years after the transplant, depending on the dose and duration of immunosuppressant drugs.

But Otley said that a full skin examination of the patients who were going to receive a transplant or who had already received a transplant could help assessing the risk.

Otley assured that "All skin cancers go through a curable stage, and if they're removed in time, they won't be lethal," he told Reuters Health.

People with fair or easily burned skin, red or blond hair, eyes that are not brown, a history of sun exposure, and any family or personal history of skin cancer are at increased risk and may need more frequent follow-up.

Otley suggested that patients at increased risk can also take other measures, such as topical treatments with a retinoid, 5-fluorouracil, or an immune response modifier.