Introduction to the Journal of Onco-Nephrology

Abstract

Renal insufficiency is highly prevalent among cancer patients, which negatively impacts on their survival. Furthermore, many oncological treatments may severely impair kidney function or exasperate preexisting renal diseases. Thus, the relationship between cancer and the kidney could be regarded as “circular” and warrants specific competencies and expertise for its management. This is why onco-nephrology, as a subspecialty of both oncology and nephrology, has begun to gain importance over the past few years. The complex issues of the management of cancer patients in dialysis, of candidates for kidney transplantation who have had a previous malignancy, and of transplant recipients who subsequently develop a malignancy, also fall into the field of onco-nephrology.