In Germany, around 100,000 people suffer from chronic kidney disease (CKD) and are dependent on renal replacement therapy, such as dialysis or kidney transplantation (KTx). Despite the relatively small population, their care requires around 12% of annual healthcare expenditure. In addition, KTx patients have a 2-3 times higher risk of developing cancer than the general population.
As of today, gender-specific characteristics have been insufficiently taken into account in CKD and KTx, for example, with regard to long-term prognosis, metabolism and the effectiveness of immunosuppression.
Compared to men, women are up to 20% less likely to be placed on the waiting list for a donor kidney, despite having the same severity of disease, higher mortality during dialysis and a similar or better prognosis after KTx.
The GeGe4Nephro consortium is researching gender-specific risk factors for the development of complications after KTx, e.g. cancer. For this purpose, KTx data from renowned transplant centers (Berlin, Leipzig) from more than two decades will be combined to identify gender-specific genetic and epigenetic biomarkers that have prognostic predictive power for post-transplant complications for the first time. A clinical AI prognostic model will support nephrologists in analyzing the individual, gender-specific risk for each KTx patient. It serves as an innovative diagnostic tool to define customized preventive measures for the individual needs of KTx patients, e.g. systematic skin cancer screening. The model will be integrated into an interactive, clinical demonstrator that will serve to evaluate the medical-technical innovations in the healthcare context and as a basis for utilization and follow-up projects.
