An AIDS diagnosis is linked with a dramatically increased risk of dying from non–AIDS-defining cancers (NADCs), aidsmap reports. Publishing their findings in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes, researchers in Italy conducted a national, population-based, retrospective cohort study of 5,285 people diagnosed with or who died of factors related to AIDS between 2006 and 2011 who were between 15 and 74 years old.

The researchers analyzed multiple-cause-of-death data on the cohort through December 2011.

The cohort was followed for a median 2.5 years and contributed 14,180 person-years of follow-up (person-years are the cumulative years participants spend in a study).

Among 1,229 people with AIDS who died during the study, 23 percent had AIDS-defining cancers reported on their death certificates. Non-Hodgkin lymphoma was reported on 18 percent of death certificates, with Kaposi’s sarcoma and cervical cancer reported on a respective 5 percent and 2.5 percent of certificates. Ten percent of the group had NADCs reported on their death certificates. The most common NADCs on the certificates were lung cancer (3 percent), liver cancer (1.4 percent) and Hodgkin lymphoma (1 percent).

The researchers compared records of those with AIDS who died during the study with 952,000 people without AIDS who died during that time. Forty-seven percent of those in the non-AIDS group had cancer reported on their death certificates.

An AIDS diagnosis was associated with a 7.3-fold increased risk of death from all NADCs compared with a lack of an AIDS diagnosis. An AIDS diagnosis was linked with the following degrees of excess risk of death from NADCs: anal cancer, 227.6-fold increased risk; Hodgkin lymphoma, 122-fold; uterine cancer, 52.5-fold; liver cancer, 13.2-fold; melanoma, 10.9-fold; lung, 8.0-fold; head and neck, 7.8-fold; leukemia, 7.6-fold; and colorectal cancer, 5.4-fold. This excess risk was especially pronounced among those people with AIDS who contracted HIV through injection drug use.

The researchers concluded, “These findings stress the need of preventive interventions for both virus-related and non-virus-related cancers among HIV-infected individuals.”

To read the aidsmap article, click here.

To read the study abstract, click here.