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
. 2011 Sep;8(3):142-52.
doi: 10.1007/s11904-011-0085-5.

Cancer screening in patients infected with HIV

Keith Sigel  1 , Robert Dubrow, Michael Silverberg, Kristina Crothers, Scott Braithwaite, Amy Justice
Affiliations
Review

Cancer screening in patients infected with HIV

Keith Sigel et al. Curr HIV/AIDS Rep. 2011 Sep.

Abstract

Non-AIDS-defining cancers are a rising health concern among HIV-infected patients. Cancer screening is now an important component of health maintenance in HIV clinical practice. The decision to screen an HIV-infected patient for cancer should include an assessment of individualized risk for the particular cancer, life expectancy, and the harms and benefits associated with the screening test and its potential outcome. HIV-infected patients are at enhanced risk of several cancers compared to the general population; anal cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma, Hodgkin's lymphoma, and lung cancer all have good evidence demonstrating an enhanced risk in HIV-infected persons. A number of cancer screening interventions have shown benefit for specific cancers in the general population, but data on the application of these tests to HIV-infected persons are limited. Here we review the epidemiology and background literature relating to cancer screening interventions in HIV-infected persons. We then use these data to inform a conceptual model for evaluating HIV-infected patients for cancer screening.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure No potential conflicts of interest relevant to this article were reported.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Conceptual model for consideration of cancer screening in asymptomatic HIV-infected patients
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Simard EP, Engels EA. Cancer as a cause of death among people with AIDS in the United States. Clin Infect Dis. 2010;51:957–962. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Lewden C, May T, Rosenthal E, et al. Changes in causes of death among adults infected by HIV between 2000 and 2005: The "Mortalite 2000 and 2005" surveys (ANRS EN19 and Mortavic) J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr. 2008;48:590–598. - PubMed
    1. Phillips AA, Justman JE. Screening HIV-infected patients for non-AIDS-defining malignancies. Curr HIV/AIDS Rep. 2009;6:83–92. - PubMed
    1. Croswell JM, Ransohoff DF, Kramer BS. Principles of cancer screening: lessons from history and study design issues. Semin Oncol. 2010;37:202–215. - PMC - PubMed

    1. Braithwaite RS, Fiellin D, Justice AC. The payoff time: a flexible framework to help clinicians decide when patients with comorbid disease are not likely to benefit from practice guidelines. Med Care. 2009;47:610–617. This article describes "payoff time," a conceptual approach to tailoring cancer screening guidelines to patients with significant comorbid illness.

Publication types