HIV Linked to Increased Risk of Mortality from Lung Cancer

The increased risk of cancer in patients with HIV

has been well defined, and some studies have suggested that patients with HIV have not only a higher risk of lung cancer, but also an increased risk of mortality from their cancer than patients without HIV.

While it is clear that there is a higher incidence

of smoking among people living with HIV, it has also been suggested that, because HIV is associated with poor immune regulatory function, infection can lead to metastasis of tumor cells. It has also been proposed that the respiratory system is particularly susceptible to immunosuppression related to HIV. While the mechanisms that explain the association between HIV and mortality from lung cancer remain elusive, a recent

study

, published in

Medicine,

sought to assess the impact of HIV status on mortality form lung cancer.

Using the PubMed and Embase databases, researchers from China conducted a review of studies that assessed the association between HIV infection and mortality among patients with lung cancer, and found 12 studies that met quality standards for inclusion.

In the meta-analysis of the studies, the pooled relative risk (RR) of mortality among patients with lung cancer who had HIV was 1.48 (95% CI, 1.22-1.78;

P

=.001), and by histological types, among the 3 studies that involved patients with non—small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), HIV was significantly associated with an elevated risk of mortality (RR, 1.69; 95% CI, 1.48-1.94;

P

<.001).

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