Late Malignant Oral Lesions after Kidney Transplantation

Abstract

Objective: To review cases of oral cavity malignancies available in the literature in kidney transplant recipients. Methods: A search was carried out in the PubMed database using the terms “oral cancer,” “mouth neoplasms,” “renal transplantation,” and “kidney transplantation.” Regardless of the publication date, the publications were chosen by two researchers after theycarefully considered the titles and abstracts and read each article in its entirety. Results: Twelve articles were found with cases of oral malignancies in kidney transplant recipients. In all, 31 malignant neoplasms were diagnosed in the oral cavity, of which 64.5% (20/31) were squamous cell carcinomas; Kaposi’s sarcoma represented 12.9% (4/31) of the cases. Lips and tongue were the most affected sites mentioned most frequently in the articles evaluated. Post-transplantation time ranged from 8 months to 23 years, and several immunosuppressants were used. Conclusions: Kidney transplant recipients should be regularly forwarded to dentists and other medical professionals who work in diagnosing malignant lesions of the oral cavity to be evaluated, and new cases of oral cancer can be recognized early to treatment. This strategy could improve the survival of patients with this threatening disease.