A recent study describes a tool designed to assess skin cancer risk in solid organ transplant recipients (SOTRs) to be efficacious in independent populations along with the one used in its creation.

Nearly 14% to 37.5% of SOTRs have the risk of developing skin cancer within 10 years of transplantation. There exist several skin cancer risk stratification instruments for the (SOTR) population. Yet, they do not show wide usage or lack large population-based studies supporting their validity or usability.

The Skin and UV Neoplasia Transplant Risk Assessment Calculator (SUNTRAC) tool was suggested in 2019 and showed good prognostic discrimination in the Transplant Skin Cancer Network population study. It considered 5 variables: sex, race, age at transplantation, pretransplant history of skin cancer and type of transplant.

Gómez-Tomás and colleagues validated these results in an independent population. They evaluated the validity of the SUNTRAC as a tool for identifying SOTRs at a higher risk of developing skin cancer by analyzing data from 3,421 SOTRs from cohorts in the Netherlands and Spain. Their patient population included 4% Black, 2.1% Asian, 8% "Latinx", 3.2% Middle Eastern and North African and 82.7% white.

They found that higher SUNTRAC scores were associated with an increased risk of skin cancer. Compared with the low-risk group, they found significantly higher skin cancer rates for each increase in SUNTRAC group, including for medium risk, high risk and very high risk. They also observed that a 1-point increase in the SUNTRAC score included a 25% increase in skin cancer risk.

Five years after the transplant, skin cancer incidence among medium-risk patients was 7%, which was "similar" to the SUNTRAC predicted percentage of 6.2%. However, the SUNTRAC tool achieved greater discrimination in the Dutch cohort compared with the Spanish cohort.

Although the SUNTRAC tool can provide clinicians with an intuitive skin cancer risk measure, prospective randomized clinical trials are warranted to assess the tools effectiveness fully.

Source: Healio [Internet]. Tool shows continued efficacy in determining skin cancer risk among transplant recipients. December 8, 2022. Available from: https://www.healio.com/news/dermatology/20221208/tool-shows-continued-efficacy-in-determining-skin-cancer-risk-among-transplant-recipients