AIDS and HIV-Associated Cancer: Antiretroviral Therapy Improves Survival

Potent antiretroviral therapy improves outcomes for patients suffering from malignancies associated with HIV infection, US researchers report. Dr. Henry K. Tam and colleagues at the University of California-Los Angeles, Johns Hopkins University, Northwestern University, Howard Brown Health Center, and the University of Pittsburgh evaluated the effects of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) on survival rates for HIV patients with Kaposi sarcoma (KS) or non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL).

Even when treatment was delayed until diagnosis of these HIV-associated cancers, survival rates rose significantly in patients who received HAART. The researchers reviewed data from 387 male HIV patients diagnosed with KS or NHL between 1990 and 1999. All the patients were enrolled in the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study.

Roughly 14 percent received HAART: Many studied patients were diagnosed before the advent of antiretroviral treatments. "The use of HAART prolongs overall survival among HIV-positive men diagnosed with KS and NHL," Tam and colleagues concluded. "HAART appears to be effective in improving survival even when initiated after the diagnosis of NHL and KS."

The researchers reported that the mortality risk after HAART dropped by 84 percent for NHL patients and 81 percent for KS patients. The report, "Effect of Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy on Survival Among HIV-Infected Men with Kaposi Sarcoma or Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma," was published in the International Journal of Cancer (2002,98(6):916-922).

Back to other CDC news for June 21, 2002

Previous Updates