Immunosuppressive therapy is associated with higher odds of ocular surface neoplasia.
Increased Risk for Ocular Surface Neoplasia in Recipients of Solid Organ Transplant.
Forest Lin et al. · American journal of ophthalmology · 2026
Purpose
Recipients of solid organ transplants (SOT) undergo long-term immunosuppressive therapy, placing them at a high risk for developing skin cancer.
Methods
AND CONTROLS: We included individuals ≥ 18 years of age receiving oral or intravenous tacrolimus, cyclosporine, sirolimus, mycophenolate mofetil or sodium, everolimus, or azathioprine.
n = 43,580 individuals
Results
people on immunosuppressive therapy had a higher risk of developing eye surface cancer
OR by subgroup · 95% CI
More results
There were 46 (0.11%) new cases of OSSN in the exposure cohort and 20 (0.05%) cases in the control cohort.
Sensitivity analyses requiring additional instances of medication exposure (OR 3.67 [95% CI 1.94 to 6.95]) or controlling for other indications of immunosuppressive therapy (OR 1.70 [95% CI 1.06 to 2.74]) showed consistent results.
More results
Excluding all recipients of SOT resulted in no significant association with OSSN (OR 1.31 [95% CI 0.64 to 2.69]).
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Conclusion
Recipients of SOT who undergo immunosuppressive therapy experienced a significantly increased risk of developing OSSN. Appropriate ophthalmological monitoring for OSSN in these populations is recommended.