Association of Antibody Induction with Short- and Long-term Cause-specific Mortality in Renal Transplant Recipients

A total of 73,707 primary renal transplants reported to the USRDS between 1988 and 1997 were examined to investigate the cause-specific risk for patient death associated with anti-lymphocyte antibody induction therapy (ABI). Cox proportional hazard models were used to estimate the relative risk of the use of ABI and patient death. All Cox models were corrected for potential confounding variables, such as age, gender, race, HLA mismatch, panel reactive antibody, delayed graft function, cold ischemia time, time since start of dialysis, etiology of end-stage renal disease, cytomegalovirus risk group, donor source (living or cadaveric), era effect, and immunosuppressive therapy. Primary study end points were patient death with functioning graft (DWFG) and overall patient death, including death after graft loss. Early patient death (deaths within the first 6 mo after renal transplantation) and late death (deaths after 6 mo post-renal transplantation) were investigated separately. Additionally, specific causes of death were investigated. ABI was associated with a significant risk for late death after renal transplantation (relative risk [RR] = 1.1; P < 0.001) but not for DWFG (RR = 0.94; P = 0.10). ABI conferred the highest RR for late malignancy-related death (RR = 1.35; P < 0.001). ABI was significantly associated with early deaths due to infection and cardiovascular causes (RR = 1.32 [P < 0.001] and RR = 1.27 [P < 0.001], respectively). Kaplan Meier plots confirmed that the risk of ABI for patient death secondary to infectious complications was increased predominately early after transplantation as opposed to late for malignancy-related death. ABI was associated with a significant relative risk for patient death secondary to cardiovascular causes and infectious complications early in the posttransplant period. In addition, ABI was associated with a significant risk for long-term malignancy-related death. The risk of ABI should be taken in context with potential benefits of this therapy.