Antiretroviral Therapy and Detection of High-grade Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia (CIN2+) at Post-CIN Management Follow-up Among Women Living With Human Immunodeficiency Virus: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Network modeling suggests HIV infection phenocopies PI3K-AKT pathway mutations to enhance HPV-associated cervical cancer

Women coinfected with human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) and human papillomavirus (HPV) are six times as likely to develop invasive cervical carcinoma compared to those without HIV. Unlike other HIV-associated cancers, the risk of cervical cancer development does not change when HPV/HIV coinfected women begin antiretroviral therapy, suggesting HIV-associated immune suppression is not a key driver of cervical cancer development in coinfected women. Here, we investigated whether the persistent secretion of inflammatory factors in HIV-positive patients on antiretroviral therapy could enhance cancer signaling in HPV-infected cervical cells via endocrine mechanisms. We integrated previously reported HIV-induced secreted inflammatory factors (Hi-SIFs), HIV and HPV virus-human protein interactions, and cervical cancer patient genomic data using network propagation to understand the pathways underlying disease development in HPV/HIV coinfection. Our results pinpointed the PI3K-AKT signaling pathway to be enriched at the interface between Hi-SIFs and HPV-host molecular networks, in alignment with PI3K pathway mutations being prominent drivers of HPV-associated, but HIV independent, cervical cancer development. Furthermore, we experimentally stimulated cervical cells with 14 Hi-SIFs to assess their ability to activate PI3K-AKT signaling. Strikingly, we found 8 factors (CD14, CXCL11, CXCL9, CXCL13, CXCL17, AHSG, CCL18, and MMP-1) to significantly upregulate AKT phosphorylation (pAKT-S473) relative to a phosphate buffered saline control. Our findings suggest that Hi-SIFs cooperate with HPV infection in cervical cells to over-activate PI3K-AKT signaling, effectively phenocopying PI3K-AKT pathway mutations, resulting in enhanced cervical cancer development in coinfected women. Our insights could support the design of therapeutic interventions targeting the PI3K-AKT pathway or neutralizing Hi-SIFs in HPV/HIV coinfected cervical cancer patients.

Can we increase the cervical cancer screening interval with an HPV test for women living with HIV? Results of a cohort study from Maharashtra, India

We are reporting (a) updated incidence of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) among women who did not have colposcopic or histopathological disease at baseline and (b) disease outcomes among women treated for CIN and their follow-up HPV status; in a cohort of women living with HIV (WHIV). The median overall follow-up was 3.5 years (IQR 2.8-4.3). The incidence of any CIN and that of CIN 2 or worse disease was 16.7 and 7.0 per 1000 person-years of observation (PYO), respectively. Compared with women who were HPV negative at baseline, women who cleared HPV infection had 23.95 times increased risk of incident CIN 2 or worse lesions (95% CI 2.40-661.07). Women with persistent HPV infection had 138.18 times increased risk of CIN 2 or worse lesions (95% CI 20.30-3300.22). Complete disease regression was observed in 65.6% of the HPV positive women with high-grade CIN and were treated with thermal ablation but HPV persistence was seen in 44.8% of those with high-grade disease. Among those who did not have any disease at baseline and were also HPV negative, about 87% (95% CI 83.79-89.48) women remained HPV negative during consecutive HPV test/s with the median interval of 3.5 years. Long-term surveillance of WHIV treated for any CIN is necessary for the prevention of cervical cancer among them. Our study provides an early indication that the currently recommended screening interval of 3 to 5 years among WHIV may be extended to at least 5 years among HPV negative women. Increasing the screening interval can be cost saving and improve scalability among WHIV to support WHO's cervical cancer elimination initiative.

Cervical Cancer Screening Cascade for women living with HIV: a cohort study from Zimbabwe

Countries with high HIV prevalence, predominantly in sub-Sahahran Africa, have the highest cervical cancer rates globally. HIV care cascades successfully facilitated the scale-up of antiretroviral therapy. A cascade approach could similarly succeed to scale-up cervical cancer screening, supporting WHO's goal to eliminate cervical cancer. We defined a Cervical Cancer Screening Cascade for women living with HIV (WLHIV), evaluating the continuum of cervical cancer screening integrated into an HIV clinic in Zimbabwe. We included WLHIV aged ≥18 years enrolled at Newlands Clinic in Harare from June 2012-2017 and followed them until June 2018. We used a cascade approach to evaluate the full continuum of secondary prevention from screening to treatment of pre-cancer and follow-up. We report percentages, median time to reach cascade stages, and cumulative incidence at two years with 95% confidence intervals (CI). We used univariable Cox proportional hazard regressions to calculate cause-specific hazard ratios with 95% CIs for factors associated with completing the cascade stages. We included 1624 WLHIV in the study. The cumulative incidence of cervical screening was 85.4% (95% CI 83.5-87.1) at two years. Among the 396 WLHIV who received screen-positive tests in the study, the cumulative incidence of treatment after a positive screening test was 79.5% (95% CI 75.1-83.2) at two years. The cumulative incidence of testing negative at re-screening after treatment was 36.1% (95% CI 31.2-40.7) at two years. Using a cascade approach to evaluate the full continuum of cervical cancer screening, we found less-than 80% of WLHIV received treatment after screen-positive tests and less-than 40% were screen-negative at follow-up. Interventions to improve linkage to treatment for screen-positive WLHIV and studies to understand the clinical significance of screen-positive tests at follow-up among WLHIV are needed. These gaps in the continuum of care must be addressed in order to prevent cervical cancer.

Nonvaccine human papillomavirus genotype common in women with HIV failing cervical precancer treatment

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study was to assess failure after treatment of high-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN2+) by HIV status and human papillomavirus (HPV) type.

DESIGN

A population-based register study.

METHODS

The Swedish National HIV Registry, the Swedish Population Registry and the Swedish National Cervical Screening Registry were linked to identify all women in Stockholm and Gothenburg counties (Sweden) living with HIV and diagnosed with CIN2+ sometime between 1983 and 2014 (n = 179). HIV-negative controls with CIN2+, were matched (2 : 1) for country of birth. CIN2+ biopsies were retrieved from biobanks and genotyped. Absolute risk and adjusted odds ratios (adjOR) of treatment failure by HIV status given HPV type (HPV16/18 vs. non-HPV16/18) were calculated.

RESULTS

HPV16 (32%) and HPV35 (24%) dominated in women living with HIV (WLWH) with failure, HPV35 mainly in women born in sub-Saharan Africa (67%). The absolute risk of failure in women with HPV16/18 was 26% [95% confidence interval (95% CI) 14-44] in WLWH and 12% in HIV-negative (95% CI 7-19). The absolute risk of failure in women with non-HPV16/18 was 20% (95% CI 12-31) in WLWH and 5% in HIV-negative (95% CI 2-11). WLWH with non-HPV16/18 were six times more likely to fail than HIV-negative (adjOR 6.1, 95% CI 2.0-18.6).

CONCLUSION

HPV35, not included in current HPV vaccines, was the second most common type in WLWH with failure. WLWH with non-HPV16/18 were six times more likely to fail than HIV-negative. This could have implications for surveillance and vaccination post CIN2+ treatment, particularly in WLWH from sub-Saharan Africa.

Should the management of high grade cervical squamous intraepithelial lesion (HSIL) be different in HIV-positive women?

BACKGROUND

This study compares the management and outcome of high grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (HSIL) in HIV-positive and -negative women and identifies risk factors for treatment failure.

METHODS

This retrospective, controlled study includes 146 HIV-positive women, matched for HSIL, age and year of diagnosis, with 146 HIV-negative women. Differences were analysed using parametric and non-parametric tests and Kaplan-Meier survival curves. A binary logistic regression was used to assess risk factors for treatment failure.

RESULTS

Persistence of cervical disease was observed most frequently in HIV-positive women (42 versus 17%) (p  <  0.001) and the cone biopsy margins were more often invaded in HIV-positive-women than in HIV-negative ones. (37 versus 16%; p  <  0.05). HIV-positive women, with successful cervical treatment had better HIV disease control: with significantly longer periods of undetectable HIV viral loads (VL) (19 versus 5 months; p  <  0.001) and higher CD4 counts (491 versus 320 cells/mm3; p  <  0.001). HIV-positive women with detectable VL at the time of dysplasia had 3.5 times (95% IC: 1.5-8.3) increased risk of treatment failure. Being treated through ablative therapy was associated with a 7.4, four-fold (95% IC: 3.2-17.3) increased risk of treatment failure compared to conization CONCLUSION: HIV-positive women have a higher risk of treatment failure of HSIL than do HIV-negative women, especially when ablative therapy is used and in women with poor control of their HIV infection. The management and the follow- up of HSIL's guidelines in this high-risk population should be adapted consequently: for HIV-positive women with uncontrolled viral load, excisional treatment should be the preferred therapy, whereas for women with undetectable viral load, CD4  +  lymphocytes higher than 500 cells/mm3 and with a desire of pregnancy, ablative therapy may be considered.