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| |  HIV Not Linked to Earlier Diagnosis for Most Cancers: Presented at CROI By Ed Susman SAN FRANCISCO -- February 22, 2010 -- Researchers said here during the 17th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) that they could not find a link between most cancers and a diagnosis of AIDS. During a poster presentation Meredith Shiels, PhD, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland, said the researchers did not find a connection between younger age and cancers frequently associated with HIV infection. “For most cancers, there is no difference in age at cancer diagnosis among persons with AIDS compared with the general population,” she said on February 18. “Apparent age differences at cancer diagnosis arise largely due to differences in underlying populations at risk for cancer.” The analysis, involving linkage between 15 US HIV/AIDS and cancer registries, did determine “small differences in the ages at diagnosis for Kaposi’s sarcoma, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, anal cancer, lung cancer, and Hodgkin lymphoma,” said Dr. Shiels, and these observations remained after controlling for differences in population structure. “Earlier age at diagnosis may represent an effect of HIV on these cancers possibly by inducing loss of immune control of infection with oncogenic viruses,” Dr. Shiels suggested. The databases contained medical outcomes among 21,477 individuals (80% men). The databases represented 916,343 person-years of follow-up after an AIDS diagnosis. Among the AIDS-defining cancers, there were 10,281 cases of Kaposi’s sarcoma, 6,668 cases of non-Hodgkin lymphomas, and 168 cervical cancers. Kaposi’s sarcoma occurred at a mean age of about 37 years among those diagnosed with AIDS compared with an average age of 44 years in the general US population (P < .001). Non-Hodgkin lymphomas occurred at an average age of 39 years in patients with AIDS versus 43 years in the general population (P < .001). Anal cancer occurred at an average age of 42 years in the AIDS population compared with 45 years for the general population (P < .001), and lung cancer occurred at an average age of 49 years among patients with AIDS patients compared with 53 years in the general population (P < .001). “Earlier age at diagnosis could also reflect differences in the timing of exposure to other key risk factors for these cancers, for example, earlier age at initiation of tobacco smoking or sexual debut,” Dr. Shiels noted. [Presentation title: Do People With AIDS Develop Cancer at Younger Ages Than the General Population? Abstract 757]
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