Abstract
A questionnaire study was performed among 23, 209 dialysis patients in 589 institutions in 1982, to clarify the risk and charcteristics of malignancies.
Dialysis patients with malignancies were older than the average dialysis patient population. However, they were younger than those with malignancies in the general population.
The incidence of malignancy in dialysis patients was 476 cases/105 persons·year, 1.3 times higher than the expected incidence in the general population. Mortality was 1.9 times higher in dialysis patients than the expected mortality in the general population. The risk of malignancy was higher in males.
Incidence and mortality were the highest among university hospitals, followed by public hospitals and private facilities. Incidence and mortality were, respectively, 6 and 7 times higher in university hospitals than private facilities.
The frequencies of kidney, bladder, colon, rectum and liver malignancies were higher, and those of esophagus, stomach and pancreas lower in dialysis patients than the expected frequencies in the general population.
The average disease course was 9 months in the patients who died of malignancies.
