Impact of the HIV infection in Hodgkin lymphoma individuals: A protocol for systematic review and meta analysis

Abstract

Background: Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) is a rare lymphoproliferative disorder that occurs in about 10% of all cancer cases. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is associated with an increased occurrence of a wide range of cancers, including HL due to progressive immunosuppression and co-infection with oncogenic viruses. However, the aim of this systematic review is to obtain evidence about the impact of the HIV infection in HL individuals.

Methods: We will obtain studies through PubMed, Embase, CINAHL, LILACS, CENTRAL, Web of Science, Scopus, Cochrane Library, and Google Scholar databases. The inclusion criteria will be observational studies (sectional, cohort, and case-control) that describe the impact of the HIV infection in HL individuals. Outcomes of interest include mortality, prevalence, causes of hospitalization, time between HIV diagnosis and HL diagnosis in days, comorbidities (systemic hypertension, diabetes mellitus, metabolic syndrome, others), T CD4 + cells/mm3 at HIV diagnosis and at HL diagnosis, viral load (log10 copies/mL) at HL diagnosis, and history of treatment abandon. Two reviewers, independently, will extract the data from each included study. Meta-analysis will then be carried out using fixed-effects or random-effects model, using the mean difference for continuous outcomes and the relative risk for dichotomous outcomes. Risk of bias will be assessed using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. The quality of evidence for each outcome will be assessed using Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation methodology. Review Manager V.5.3.5 will be used for synthesis and subgroup analysis. To assess heterogeneity, we will compute the I2 statistics. Additionally, a quantitative synthesis will be performed if the included studies are sufficiently homogenous.

Ethics and dissemination: This study will be a review of the published data, and thus it is not necessary to obtain ethical approval. The findings of this systematic review will be published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Prospero registration number: CRD42021289520.

Figure 1.

PRISMA flow diagram for systematic review and meta-analysis. HIV = human immunodeficiency virus, PRISMA = Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses.