Patterns of HIV viremia and viral suppression before diagnosis of non-AIDS-defining cancers in HIV-infected individuals

Background: The association between HIV viremia and non-AIDS-defining cancers (NADCs) is not well characterized. Viremia may contribute directly or indirectly to cancer development and may have a differential impact on various cancer types. Our objective was to characterize patterns of HIV viremia in a retrospective, urban, clinical cohort (N = 320) of patients diagnosed with NADCs. Findings: The most common NADC's were lung (n = 60), prostate (n = 47), oropharyngeal (n = 32), liver (n = 29), and anal cancer (n = 20) and Hodgkin lymphoma (n = 18). In the year before cancer diagnosis, 66 % of all patients were virally suppressed. Patients with oropharyngeal (70 %) and prostate cancer (78 %) had a higher proportion of visits with suppressed viral loads. Patients diagnosed with anal cancer and Hodgkin lymphoma were infrequently virally suppressed and more frequently had viral loads ≥5 log₁₀ copies/ml in the ten years prior to cancer diagnosis. Conclusions: In this cohort of HIV-infected patients diagnosed with NADCs, there were important differences in the patterns and levels of viremia between the different NADCs in the ten years prior to cancer diagnosis. Patients with anal cancer and Hodgkin lymphoma had the highest proportion of high level viremia in the ten years before cancer and the lowest frequency of viral load suppression at cancer diagnosis.