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Cancer Burden in the HIV-Infected US Population

People infected with HIV are living longer now because of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). As a result, the HIV-infected population, which has an increased risk of AIDS-defining cancers (i.e., Kaposi sarcoma, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and cervical cancer), is also now at increased risk of non-AIDS-defining cancers that occur at older ages. Shiels et al. (p. 753 ) used HIV and cancer registries to estimate the number and types of cancers in the US AIDS population during 1991–2005, and analyze the shift in cancer burden, if any, in this population. Results showed that the US AIDS population increased four-fold during 1991–2005, mainly because of an expanded population aged 40 years or older. While the AIDS-defining cancers decreased by more than three-fold, the non-AIDS-defining cancers showed a three-fold increase. Since 2003, the annual count of non-AIDS-defining cancers has exceeded the number of AIDS-defining cancers in the United States. The authors state that the increase in non-AIDS-defining cancer burden in the HIV-infected population needs to be addressed with effective public health strategies.