Malignancies, Particularly B-Cell Lymphomas, Are a Frequent Cause of Mortality in Human Immunodeficiency Virus-1 Patients Despite Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy

Daniel O Griffin; Michael Metzger; Kaitlin Poeth; Kathy Deng; Arif Dharsee; Juan Carlos Rico; Joseph McGowan

doi:10.1093/ofid/ofv147

Malignancies, Particularly B-Cell Lymphomas, Are a Frequent Cause of Mortality in Human Immunodeficiency Virus-1 Patients Despite Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy

Open Forum Infect Dis. 2015 Sep 30;2(4):ofv147. doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofv147. eCollection 2015 Dec.

Authors

Daniel O Griffin¹, Michael Metzger², Kaitlin Poeth³, Kathy Deng³, Arif Dharsee³, Juan Carlos Rico³, Joseph McGowan²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics ; Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases , Columbia University Medical Center ; Department of Medicine-Division of Infectious Disease , Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine , Manhasset.
² Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics , Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Columbia University Medical Center , New York, New York.
³ Department of Medicine-Division of Infectious Disease , Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine , Manhasset.

Abstract

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-1-infected individuals are affected by diseases at rates above those of their HIV-negative peers despite the increased life expectancy of the highly active antiretroviral therapy era. We followed a cohort of approximately 2000 HIV-1-infected patients for 5 years. The most frequent cause of death in this HIV-1-infected cohort was malignancy, with 39% of all classified deaths due to cancer. Among the cancer deaths, B-cell lymphomas were the most commonly seen malignancy, representing 34% of all cancer deaths. These lymphomas were very aggressive with a median survival of <2 months from time of diagnosis.

Keywords: B cell; HIV-1; lymphoma; malignancy; mortality.