Higher risk of malignant neoplasms in young adults with end‐stage renal disease receiving haemodialysis: A nationwide population‐based study

AIM: Previous investigations have shown that end‐stage renal disease (ESRD) is associated with an increased risk of malignancies. The aim of this study was to explore the association between ESRD in patients undergoing maintenance haemodialysis (HD) and the incidence of malignancies according to age. METHODS: We analysed a nationwide cohort retrieved from Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database to study the incidence of malignancies in patients who were and were not receiving HD. One million beneficiaries were randomly selected and followed from 2005 to 2013. Of these 1 000 000 patients, 3055 developed ESRD and commenced maintenance HD during this period. For each HD patient, four age‐, gender‐ and diabetes‐matched controls were selected from the database (n = 12 220). We further stratified the patients according to age. The study endpoint was the occurrence of malignancy. RESULTS: The incidence rates of malignancy were 6.8% and 4.9% in the HD and control groups, respectively. Competing risk regression analysis indicated that age, HD, male gender and diabetes were associated with an increased risk of malignancy. When further stratified according to age, the odds ratios of developing cancer were 5.8, 1.9, 1.9 and 1.5 among the HD patients aged <40 years, 40–49 years, 50–59 years and 60–69 years, respectively. CONCLUSION: The patients with ESRD who received HD had a significantly higher cumulative risk of malignancy, especially those with a young age. Therefore, specialized cancer screening protocols for young HD patients might help to prolong their lifespan.