Using patient data to look at cancer after transplantation: The EpCOT Study
How can patient data help researchers to understand more about the risk of cancer in people who have had a solid organ transplant?
On Tuesday 15th July, we hosted a webinar with guest speaker Adnan Sharif about the ongoing study 'Epidemiology of Cancer after solid Organ Transplantation (EpCOT)'.
The issue
Risk of cancer is a big concern for lots of people who have had a transplant, and is a topic that has been studied by researchers all over the world.
Transplant patients can have an increased risk of cancer for a variety of reasons, such as having more inflammation in their body, taking immune suppression medication, and exposure to other risk factors like obesity.
However, much of the existing research on this topic was conducted either a long time ago or in places other than the UK, so it can be difficult to translate findings to patients and practices within the UK. Many studies also show conflicting findings on things like the risk of dying from cancer, or whether older people are at higher risk.
The research
Researchers from Birmingham have been looking at data from over 85,000 people who received an organ transplant in the UK between 1985 and 2015 to develop a complete picture of the risk of cancer after transplantation. The data used in this study has come from the UK Transplant Registry, the National Death Registry, the Cancer Registry, and Hospital Episode Statistics.
So far, it has shown that the risk of developing cancer after having a solid organ transplant in England is higher than the rest of the population, but this risk is less than has been shown in research from other countries.
It has also shown that solid organ transplant recipients in England are twice as likely to die from cancer compared to the general public, but this varies according to which type or organ is transplanted and where the cancer is in the body.
What next?
This study is still ongoing, so researchers will continue to analyse the data and will try to access more data to get a complete picture for transplant patients in the UK.
When the findings are published, a full summary will be available on our website.
A recording of the webinar will shortly be available on our website.