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World J Transplant. Jun 18, 2023; 13(4): 129-137
Published online Jun 18, 2023. doi: 10.5500/wjt.v13.i4.129
Women’s health issues in solid organ transplantation: Breast and gynecologic cancers in the post-transplant population
Michelle Jones-Pauley, Sudha Kodali, Tamneet Basra, David W Victor
Michelle Jones-Pauley, Department of Gastroenterology, Houston Methodist Hospital, Houston, TX 77008, United States
Sudha Kodali, Tamneet Basra, David W Victor, Department of Transplant Hepatology, Houston Methodist Hospital, Houston, TX 77030, United States
Author contributions: Jones-Pauley M, Kodali S, Basra T, and Victor DW wrote the manuscript; All authors have read and approve the final manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: David W Victor, MD, Director, Department of Transplant Hepatology, Houston Methodist Hospital, 6550 Fannin St, Houston, TX 77030, United States. dwvictor@houstonmethodist.org
Received: December 29, 2022
Peer-review started: December 29, 2022
First decision: March 1, 2023
Revised: April 19, 2023
Accepted: May 31, 2023
Article in press: May 31, 2023
Published online: June 18, 2023
Processing time: 168 Days and 17.2 Hours
Abstract

The success of solid organ transplant has steadily improved which has led to a unique set of post-transplant issues. The rates of de novo cancer in the solid organ transplant recipient population are higher than those in the general population. There is growing evidence that breast and gynecologic cancers may have a higher mortality rate in post-transplant patients. Cervical and vulvovaginal cancers specifically have a significantly higher mortality in this population. Despite this increased mortality risk, there is currently no consistent standard in screening and identifying these cancers in post-transplant patients. Breast, ovarian and endometrial cancers do not appear to have significantly increased incidence. However, the data on these cancers remains limited. Further studies are needed to determine if more aggressive screening strategies would be of benefit for these cancers. Here we review the cancer incidence, mortality risk and current screening methods associated with breast and gynecologic cancers in the post-solid organ transplant population.

Keywords: Cancer screening; Solid organ transplant; Female-specific cancer

Core Tip: Survival after solid organ transplant is continually improving. Because of this, patients are living longer and are requiring long-term monitoring for malignancies. There is growing evidence that breast and gynecologic cancers (specifically cervical and vulvovaginal cancers) may have a higher mortality rate in post-transplant patients. Despite this increased mortality risk, there is currently no consistent standard among transplant societies for screening and identifying these cancers in post-transplant patients. Ultimately, data are not robust and further studies are needed to determine if more aggressive screening strategies would be of benefit for these cancers.