Solid organ transplant recipients (SOTRs) are at high risk of skin cancer, and keratinocyte carcinomas (KC) are a significant source of morbidity and mortality. Research in the field of transplant dermatology to address the complex care needs of these patients is limited by the absence of an interdisciplinary, national research network that can collaborate to identify critical areas for shared future inquiry, share relevant data, and complete large-scale research studies.
Therefore, we propose a Canadian transplant dermatology research network that connects and supports dermatologists and patient stakeholders nationwide in identifying innovative solutions for the skin problems facing SOTRs. Key work plan milestones are to: 1) conduct a priority-setting initiative to identify the most pressing issues in transplant dermatology; 2) recruit additional sites and physician members; and 3) create a national shared transplant dermatology database using SkIN Canada’s data-sharing agreements. Potential early areas of research focus will include identifying chemoprophylactic strategies, effective risk prediction tools, and imaging modalities for advanced or recurrent cancer. We predict this network will have numerous associated benefits, such as: a) pooled resources and collaboration to encourage the completion of ongoing studies and expand the potential scale of future projects; b) a national repository of clinical, biochemical, and histopathologic data to direct future population-based analyses to identify modifiable risk factors and cost-effective preventative strategies; and c) interdisciplinary and multisite collaboration to improve study design, execution, and each individual participating locations’ research culture, processes, and systems based on the experiences of other institutions. The overarching goal of our proposal is to identify innovative research projects and develop cost-effective healthcare solutions for the skin challenges encountered by SOTRs. More specifically, our proposal builds capacity to address a Top Ten research priority identified by SkIN Canada: chemoprevention for squamous cell carcinoma in transplant recipients.
