Twenty cases of malignancy in patients on maintenance hemodialysis

From June, 1978 through July, 1986, 22 cancers were diagnosed in twenty patients under maintenance hemodialysis. The mean patient age at induction of hemodialysis and diagnosis of cancer were 52.90±8.72 years (range 34 to 67 years) and 56.95±8.53 years (range 41 to 68 years), respectively. The mean duration of dialysis before diagnosis of cancer was 4.05±8.56 years (range 7 months to 11 years). Gastrointestinal cancers were found in 9 (45.0%) of 20 patients including four in the stomach, three in the rectum and two in the ascending colon. Of these patients having stomach cancer, one patient was found two cancer in stomach and bladder both. Lung, liver, kidney and bladder cancers were found in two patients each, and thyroid, larynx and ovarium cancer, and leukemia were found in one patient each. The two kidney cancers were renal cell carcinoma with acquired cystic disease of the kidney (ACDK). One of them was double cancers in both kidneys. In our experience, direct causes of death in hemodialysis patients with malignancy were mainly underdialysis, malnutrition, infection and bleeding.