Does Cancer Occur at an Especially Young Age in HIV-Infected Patients?

Cancer accounts for a growing fraction of deaths among people with AIDS (JW AIDS Clin Care Sep 27 2010). Some studies have suggested that HIV-infected individuals develop non–AIDS-defining cancers at a particularly young age, perhaps as part of a syndrome of premature aging. To evaluate this possibility, investigators compared ages at cancer diagnosis in people with AIDS versus the general population, using U.S. registry data.

From 1996 to 2007, a total of 2540 non–AIDS-defining cancers occurred among 212,055 people with AIDS. For most types of cancer, the median age at diagnosis was about 20 years younger in people with AIDS than in the general population. However, most of these differences disappeared after adjustment for the fact that HIV…