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Multicenter Study
. 2009 Jan 2;23(1):41-50.
doi: 10.1097/QAD.0b013e328317cc2d.

Trends in the incidence of cancers among HIV-infected persons and the impact of antiretroviral therapy: a 20-year cohort study

Nancy Crum-Cianflone  1 , Katherine Huppler Hullsiek, Vincent Marconi, Amy Weintrob, Anuradha Ganesan, R Vincent Barthel, Susan Fraser, Brian K Agan, Scott Wegner
Affiliations
Multicenter Study

Trends in the incidence of cancers among HIV-infected persons and the impact of antiretroviral therapy: a 20-year cohort study

Nancy Crum-Cianflone et al. AIDS. .

Abstract

Objective: To describe trends in incidence rates of AIDS-defining cancers (ADCs) and non-AIDS-defining cancers (NADCs) during the HIV epidemic and to evaluate predictors, including the impact of antiretroviral therapy, of cancer development.

Design: Retrospective analysis of a multicenter, prospective natural history study including 4498 HIV-infected US military beneficiaries with 33 486 person-years of follow-up.

Methods: Predictors evaluated included demographics, clinical data, time-updated CD4 cell counts, HIV viral loads, and antiretroviral history. Time periods were classified as early pre (1984-1990), late pre (1991-1995), early post (1996-2000), and late post (2001-2006) HAART eras. Cox proportional hazard models were used to evaluate the association of specific factors with cancer.

Results: Ten percent of HIV-infected persons developed cancer. ADC rates increased between the early and late pre-HAART eras (7.6 and 14.2 cases per 1000 person-years) and have since declined from 5.4 to 2.7 in the early and late HAART eras, respectively (P < 0.001). Rates of NADCs have risen over the four periods (2.9, 2.8, 4.2, 6.7, P = 0.0004). During the late HAART era, 71% of cancers were NADCs. Predictors for ADCs included low CD4 cell count, noncancer AIDS diagnosis, and lack of HAART. NADCs were predicted by increasing age and white race (due to skin cancers).

Conclusion: Although the rate of ADCs continues to fall, the rate of NADCs is rising and now accounts for the majority of cancers in HIV-infected persons. The development of NADCs is associated with increasing age among HIV patients. HAART use is protective for ADCs, but did not significantly impact NADCs.

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Conflict of interest statement

The opinions or ascertains contained herein are the private views of the authors and are not to be construed as official or as reflecting the views of the Departments of the Army, Navy, or Air Force, or the Department of Defense. The authors have no commercial or other association that might pose a conflict of interest in this work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow diagram of cancer cases in the study cohort. *Cancer more than 6 months prior to HIV seroconversion (N=51); HIV seroconversion date unknown (N=10); benign tumor or diagnosis not confirmed as malignant (N=7). ** Including one case of hepatocellular carcinoma. ***Second cancers were malignancies which developed after the first cancer and that were due to a different type of cancer.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Cancer incidence rates per 1000 person-years by HAART availability time periods.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

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