The public defence will be held as a video conference over Zoom.
The defence will follow regular procedure as far as possible, hence it will be open to the public and the audience can ask ex auditorio questions when invited to do so.
Click here to participate in the digital public defence
Digital Trial Lecture - time and place
Adjudication committee
- First opponent: Associate Professor Stefano Piaserico, University of Padova, Italy
- Second opponent: Associate Professor John Paoli, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
- Third member and chair of the evaluation committee: Professor II Inger Nina Farstad, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo
Chair of defence
Professor Emeritus Anders Hartmann, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo
Principal Supervisor
Professor Petter Gjersvik, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo
Summary
Organ transplant recipients have a high risk of developing skin cancer, particularly squamous cell carcinoma, and premalignant actinic keratoses. The increased risk of such sun-induced skin lesions is linked to the use of immunosuppressive drugs. Avoiding sun exposure, however, may lead to vitamin D deficiency.
In a population-based study with all patients who received a kidney, heart, lung or liver transplant in Norway in the period 1968-2012, Syed Mohammad Husain Rizvi and co-workers document a significant decline in the risk of cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma in patients transplanted in the last decades compared to those transplanted in the mid-1980s, although the risk remains much higher than in the general population. The decline may be explained by the use of less aggressive, less carcinogenic and more individualized immunosuppressive therapy. Furthermore increased patient awareness and aggressive treatment of premalignant skin lesions may also play a role. In another study, Rizvi and co-workers found that ablative fractional CO2-laser treatment followed by daylight photodynamic therapy is more effective than daylight photodynamic therapy alone in treating thick actinic keratoses in organ transplant recipients. In an observational study, a substantial number of organ transplant recipients in Norway had vitamin D deficiency or insufficiency, both during winter and summer months.
These findings have implications for our understanding of the relationship between immunosuppressive drugs and skin cancer and the management of sun exposure-related complications in organ transplant recipients.
Additional information
contact the Reserch Support staff