Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2009 Sep;21(5):455-61.
doi: 10.1097/CCO.0b013e32832e6385.

Challenges in treating malignancies in HIV in Nigeria

Oluyemisi Akinwande  1 , Temidayo Ogundiran, Sally Akarolo-Anthony, Ibrahim Mamadu, Patrick Dakum, William Blattner, Clement Adebamowo
Affiliations
Review

Challenges in treating malignancies in HIV in Nigeria

Oluyemisi Akinwande et al. Curr Opin Oncol. 2009 Sep.

Abstract

Purpose of review: Sub-Saharan Africa has the largest population of people living with AIDS in the world, with Nigeria having the third largest after South Africa and India. With the advent of treatment programs, more people in Nigeria are now living with the virus but are at increased risk of cancer similar to the experience in other parts of the world. This review uses publications on HIV-associated cancers emanating from Nigeria in 2008 to map the current landscape of prevention, diagnosis and treatment of these conditions. The opportunities and challenges identified in this review will provide a template for designing appropriate clinical and public health intervention to stem another epidemic, this time of AIDS-associated malignancies.

Recent findings: There is a paucity of literature on AIDS-associated cancers from Nigeria, and most reports are based on hospital or pathology case series. Poor case identification and diagnosis and rudimentary cancer registration militate against adequate quantification of the prevalence of AIDS-associated cancers in Nigeria. Several initiatives, working with the HIV treatment programs, governmental and nongovernmental local and international agencies, are rising to the challenge and creating new opportunities for cancer prevention, treatment and research that takes advantage of improved treatment infrastructure provided for people living with HIV/AIDS.

Summary: Nigeria is about to witness substantial increase in the background incidence of cancers due to high prevalence of HIV and expanded treatment programs. Creative methods are needed to deploy effective prevention, case identification, registration and treatment programs that are consistent with the socioeconomic development of the country.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Map of Nigeria showing the regional variations in seroprevalence of HIV in 2005.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. UNAIDS, editor. UNAIDS. Report on the global HIV/AIDS epidemic 2008. Geneva: UNAIDS; 2008. Series Editor.

    1. Population pyramids for Nigeria on World Wide Web URL http://www.census.gov/cgi-bin/ipc/idbpyry.pl?cty=NI&maxp=12904386&maxa=100&ymax=300&yr=2007&.submit=Submit

    1. Blattner W, Dakum P, Osotimehin B, Nasidi A, Abimiku A. Public Health Aspects of HIV/AIDS - Nigeria and West Africa. In: Celentano DD, Beyrer C, editors. Public Health Aspects of HIV/AIDS in Low and Middle Income Countries. First. Springer; 2008. pp. 217–251.

    2. * This is a comprehensive review of the state of the art of Public Health aspects of HIV/AIDS epidemic in Nigeria by the group offering care and support to the largest number of PLWA. The limited information on the incidence of cancer in this paper reflects the paucity of data on the subject

    1. Bonnet F, Lewden C, May T, Heripet L, Jougla E, Bevilacqua S, Costagliola D, Salmon D, Chene G, Morlat P. Malignancy-related causes of death in human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients in the era of highly active antiretroviral therapy. Cancer. 2004;101:317–324. - PubMed
    1. Goedert JJ, Cote TR, Virgo P, Scoppa SM, Kingma DW, Gail MH, Jaffe ES, Biggar RJ. Spectrum of AIDS-associated malignant disorders. Lancet. 1998;352:1833–1839. - PubMed

MeSH terms