Evaluation of sleep and quality of life in renal transplant recipients with nonmelanoma skin cancer

Abstract

The renal transplant recipients (RTR) have a significantly increased risk of developing a wide variety of cutaneous neoplasms. Among these the nonmelanoma skin cancer (NMSC) represents the most common form. This is related to the effects of Immunosuppressive drugs used in post-transplant anti-rejection therapy. Another factor is sleep restriction, which changes the normal physiology of the immune system and decreases the body's ability to avoid oxidative stress, known to be essential in the carcinogenesis induced by reactive oxygen species. This study aims to evaluate the relationship between sleeping and NMSC in RTR. Thus, 120 individuals will be included and distributed into groups: RTR without NMSC (n = 40), RTR with NMSC (n = 40) and healthy controls (n = 40). After accepted the conditions of the study, they will be invited to answer questionnaires about sleep and quality of life. The data collected will be compared to the epidemiological and clinical data, being the latter obtained through the electronic medical records of the patients.