Bladder carcinoma in a transplant recipient: evidence to implicate the BK human polyomavirus as a causal transforming agent

Abstract

The BK polyomavirus (BKV) infects most of the human population, but clinically relevant infections are mostly limited to individuals who are immunosuppressed. In transplant recipients, BKV has been associated with ureteral stenosis, interstitial nephritis, and hemorrhagic cystitis. The role of BKV in the development of human tumors is intriguing but uncertain. BKV has been identified in various tumor types including urothelial carcinoma, but the ubiquitous presence of BKV as a latent infection has confounded efforts to validate any causal role in cancer development. We report the case of a simultaneous pancreas and kidney transplant recipient who developed BKV interstitial nephritis and carcinoma of the bladder with widespread metastases. High level expression of BKV large T antigen in the primary and metastatic carcinoma, but not in the nonneoplastic urothelium, implicates BKV as an etiologic agent in the development of this tumor.