Elevated Cancer-Specific Mortality Among HIV-Infected Patients in the United States
Year: 2015
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: PURPOSE: Despite advances in the treatment of HIV, HIV-infected people remain at increased risk for many cancers, and the number of non-AIDS-defining cancers is increasing with the aging of the HIV-infected population. No prior study has comprehensively evaluated the effect of HIV on cancer-specific mortality. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We identified cases of 14 common cancers occurring from 1996 to 2010 in six US states participating in a linkage of cancer and HIV/AIDS registries. We used Cox regression to examine the association between patient HIV status and death resulting from the presenting cancer (ascertained from death certificates), adjusting for age, sex, race/ethnicity, year of cancer diagnosis, and cancer stage. We included 1,816,461 patients with cancer, 6,459 (0.36%) of whom were HIV infected. RESULTS: Cancer-specific mortality was significantly elevated in HIV-infected compared with HIV-uninfected patients for many cancers: colorectum (adjusted hazard ratio [HR], 1.49; 95% CI, 1.21 to 1.84), pancreas (HR, 1.71; 95% CI, 1.35 to 2.18), larynx (HR, 1.62; 95% CI, 1.06 to 2.47), lung (HR, 1.28; 95% CI, 1.17 to 1.39), melanoma (HR, 1.72; 95% CI, 1.09 to 2.70), breast (HR, 2.61; 95% CI, 2.06 to 3.31), and prostate (HR, 1.57; 95% CI, 1.02 to 2.41). HIV was not associated with increased cancer-specific mortality for anal cancer, Hodgkin lymphoma, or diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. After further adjustment for cancer treatment, HIV remained associated with elevated cancer-specific mortality for common non-AIDS-defining cancers: colorectum (HR, 1.40; 95% CI, 1.09 to 1.80), lung (HR, 1.28; 95% CI, 1.14 to 1.44), melanoma (HR, 1.93; 95% CI, 1.14 to 3.27), and breast (HR, 2.64; 95% CI, 1.86 to 3.73). CONCLUSION: HIV-infected patients with cancer experienced higher cancer-specific mortality than HIV-uninfected patients, independent of cancer stage or receipt of cancer treatment. The elevation in cancer-specific mortality among HIV-infected patients may be attributable to unmeasured stage or treatment differences as well as a direct relationship between immunosuppression and tumor progression.
Source: Journal of Clinical Oncology
Institutions: University of Utah, National Cancer Institute
Language: English
Subfield: Oncology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
Awards: G1073836666, G1174132558, HIV/AIDS SURVEILLANCE, G132490393, G1472229785, G1572741679, G1874590579, G1938264392, HIV/AIDS SURVEILLANCE, G2205468409, G2238238119, CORE AND INCIDENCE SURVEILLANCE FOR HIV IN MICHIGAN, G2875564675, G3045762023, G3423876156, G4315475969, G5132823645, G576951806, G5783477249, NATIONAL CANCER PREVENTION AND CONTROL PROGRAM, G6585519052, G747710681, NATIONAL HIV SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM, G8014336463, G867096425
OpenAlex ID: W2127129197