Tacrolimus Dose Requirement in De Novo Adult Kidney Transplant Patients Treated With Adoport® Can Be Anticipated

All the factors potentially influencing tacrolimus dose requirement and combinations thereof have never been thoroughly investigated, precluding accurate prediction of tacrolimus starting dose. This prospective, non-interventional, multicenter study in <i>de novo</i> adult kidney transplant recipients over the first year after transplantation aimed to investigate the factors influencing tacrolimus dose-standardized trough blood concentration (C₀/D) over the first week post-transplant (D4-D7, primary objective), D8-M3 and M3-M12 (secondary objectives). Statistical analysis employed mixed linear models with repeated measures. Eighteen sites enrolled 440 patients and followed them up for 9.5 ± 4.1 months. Age at baseline (<i>p</i> = 0.0144), end-stage renal disease (<i>p</i> = 0.0092), CYP3A phenotype (<i>p</i> < 0.0001), dyslipidemia at baseline (<i>p</i> = 0.0031), hematocrit (<i>p</i> = 0.0026), total bilirubin (<i>p</i> = 0.0261) and plasma creatinine (<i>p</i> = 0.0484) independently increased with log(C₀/D) over D4-D7, explaining together 72.3% of the interindividual variability, and representing a robust model to estimate tacrolimus initial dose. Donor age and CYP3A phenotype were also influential over D8-M3 and M3-12, in addition to recipient age. Corticosteroids, diabetes at baseline, and ASAT yielded inconstant results between D8-M3 and M3-M12. We found no ethnicity effect when CYP3A phenotype was accounted for, and no food effect. Intra-individual variability over M3-M12 was moderate, and significantly lower in patients with chronic hepatic disorder (<i>p</i> = 0.0196) or cancer (<i>p</i> = 0.0132).