Association of dialysis with the risks of cancers

To increase the survival span after dialysis in patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD), identifying specific cancer risks is crucial in the cancer screening of these patients. The aim of this study was to investigate the risks of various cancers in an incident dialysis group in comparison with a non-dialysis group. We conducted a nationwide cohort study by using data from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database. Patients who initially received long-term dialysis between January 1997 and December 2004, were selected and defined as the dialysis group and were matched with the non-dialysis patients (control group) according to age, sex, and index year. Competing risk analysis was used to estimate cumulative incidence and subdistribution hazard ratios (SHRs) of the first cancer occurrence. After consideration for the competing risk of mortality, the dialysis group showed a significantly higher 7-year cancer incidence rate than did the control group (6.4%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 6.0%-6.7% vs 1.7%; 95% CI, 1.4%-2.1%; P