Age at Cancer Diagnosis Among People with AIDS

HIV infection raises the incidence of AIDS-defining cancers (e.g., Kaposi sarcoma, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, cervical cancer) and many other common malignancies. Does this propensity to develop cancer reflect an HIV-related syndrome of premature aging? Researchers compared ages at diagnosis of non–AIDS-defining cancers among people with AIDS relative to the general population. The analysis included more than 200,000 people who were part of a multistate HIV/AIDS registry between 1996 and 2007, during the highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) era.

The most common non–AIDS-defining malignancies among people with AIDS were lung cancer, anal cancer, and Hodgkin lymphoma. The median age at first diagnosis of most malignancies was approximately …