More on HIV Infection and Cancer Risk

HIV-infected patients have a higher risk for cancer than the general population (JW AIDS Clin Care Jan 15 2010), but the relative roles of immunosuppression, antiretroviral therapy (ART), and the infection itself are not well defined. To address this issue, investigators evaluated the incidence of AIDS-defining and non–AIDS-defining cancers during the potent-ART era among 4194 HIV-infected individuals in a French cohort study.

A total of 251 new cases of cancer were diagnosed during roughly 22,000 person-years of follow-up; 107 were AIDS-defining and 144 were not. AIDS-defining malignancies occurred at a rate of 5.2 cases per 1000 person-years among men and 3.6 per 1000 person-years among women. Non-Hodgkin lymphoma was the most common AIDS-…