WEDNESDAY, Dec. 18, 2024 -- Patients who undergo blood or marrow transplant (BMT) have an increased risk for subsequent cutaneous malignant neoplasms, according to a study published online Dec. 18 in JAMA Dermatology.

Kristy K. Broman, M.D., M.P.H., from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and colleagues conducted a retrospective cohort study involving patients who underwent treatment at City of Hope, University of Minnesota, or University of Alabama at Birmingham from 1974 to 2014 and survived two years or longer and a comparison cohort of siblings to identify risk factors for subsequent cutaneous malignant neoplasms after BMT.

The researchers found that among the 3,880 BMT survivors followed for a median of 9.5 years, 605 developed 778 distinct cutaneous neoplasms. For any cutaneous malignant neoplasm, the 30-year cumulative incidence was 27.4 percent. Compared with siblings, BMT survivors had considerably higher 70-year cumulative probabilities of basal cell carcinoma (18.1 versus 8.2 percent), squamous cell carcinoma (14.7 versus 4.2 percent), and melanoma (4.2 versus 2.4 percent). Among BMT survivors, age 50 years and older at BMT, male sex, pre-BMT monoclonal antibody exposure, allogeneic BMT with chronic graft-versus-host disease, post-BMT immunosuppression, and transplant at City of Hope were included as risk factors for subsequent cutaneous malignant neoplasms. Race and ethnicity other than non-Hispanic White were protective for basal and squamous cell carcinomas. Among those younger than 50 years at BMT, total body irradiation was associated with basal cell carcinoma risk.

"These findings could inform targeted surveillance of BMT survivors," the authors write.