Purpose of review: Individuals with HIV infection are at higher risk for the development of a wide variety of non-AIDS-defining cancers (NADCs). Immunosuppressed patients following allograft organ transplantation are also at an increased risk for most of these tumour types implicating immune suppression in the pathogenesis rather than HIV itself. Although all three AIDS-defining malignancies and many NADCs are associated with viral etiopathogenesis, some, such as lung cancer, are not related to any known viral oncogenes and the reason for their increased incidence in immunosuppressed individuals remains unclear.
Recent findings: The majority of the excess risk of NADC is accounted for by a limited number of specific cancers, which repeatedly occur with increased incidence in published series. Many of the data date from the pre-highly active antiretroviral therapy era and are thus not applicable to the 21st Century.
Summary: NADCs are contributing significantly to the morbidity and mortality of HIV infection in the era of highly active antiretroviral therapy and the risk of NADCs does not correlate with the degree of immunodeficiency in general.