Cytomegalovirus and gastric cancer after renal transplantation: a possible interplay

We herein have described a case of de novo gastric cancer in a renal transplant recipient with a concomitant diagnosis of gastrointestinal cytomegalovirus (CMV) disease. We hypothesize that CMV, through causing an imbalance between cell proliferation and cell death, functions as the causative agent for the progression of the gastric tumor in this case after gastric colonization. To the best of our knowledge, this is the second such case ever reported of such kind and may represent a platform for investigations aimed at understanding the possible interplay between CMV and gastric cancer.