Current questions in HIV-associated lung cancer. Curr Opin Oncol. 2013;25:511-517. [PMID: 23942294 DOI: 10.1097/cco.0b013e328363dfdb]

HIV Associated Lung Cancer: Unique Clinicopathologic Features and Immune Biomarkers Impacting Lung Cancer Screening and Management

OBJECTIVES

Lung cancer contributes significantly to morbidity and mortality in people with HIV (PWH). We study the clinicopathologic characteristics and immune microenvironment in HIV associated lung cancer.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

Clinicopathological characteristics including immunotherapy outcomes were collected for 174 PWH diagnosed with lung cancer. Immunohistochemical staining for PD-L1, CD4, and CD8 was performed.

RESULTS

At diagnosis, patients with HIV associated lung cancer were significantly younger (56.9 vs. 69 years, P < .0001) and more frequently had advanced disease (70% vs. 53%, P = .01). The majority were African American (60% vs. 42%, P < .0001) and were smoking at the time of diagnosis or smoked in the past (98% vs. 86%, P = .0001). Only 10% of HIV associated lung cancer was diagnosed through the screening program. The median CD4+ lymphocyte count was 334 cells/µL, 31% had a CD4 ≤200 cells/µL and 63% of the cohort was virally suppressed. HIV associated non-small-cell lung cancer(NSCLC) was characterized by limited PD-L1 expression compared to the HIV negative cohort, 64% vs. 31% had TPS <1%, and 20% vs. 34% had TPS≥50%, respectively (P = .04). Higher CD8+ TILs were detected in PD-L1-high tumors (P < .0001). 50% of patients achieved disease control in the metastatic setting with the use of immunotherapy, and there were no new safety signals in 19 PWH treated with immunotherapy.

CONCLUSION

Lung cancer in PWH demonstrates unique features highlighting the need for a specialized screening program. Despite low PD-L1 expression, immunotherapy is well tolerated with reasonable disease control. Altered immune system in lung cancer pathogenesis in PWH should be further investigated.

Chest CT Findings in Patients with HIV Presenting to the Emergency Department: A Single Institute Experience

PURPOSE

The aim of this study was to analyze chest CT imaging findings and relevant clinical factors in patients with HIV presenting to the emergency department (ED).

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A retrospective review was performed to identify patients with HIV who received chest CT imaging evaluation in the acute ED setting. Analyzed patients included adults with a known diagnosis of HIV who presented to the ED at a single tertiary care center between 2004 and 2020 and received chest CT imaging. Chest CT findings were assessed by 2 radiologist readers, and relevant clinical data were gathered. Statistical analysis was performed to determine if imaging and clinical factors demonstrate significant associations with CD4 count, viral load, and antiretroviral therapy status.

RESULTS

A total of 113 patients with HIV were identified who presented to the ED and underwent chest CT imaging evaluation (mean age 47 ± 11 years). Frequently detected chest CT findings included infectious pneumonia (24%), malignancy (11%), pleural effusion (17%), pericardial effusion (13%), and pulmonary embolism (4%). CD4 count, viral load, and active retroviral therapy demonstrated statistically significant associations with a number of key imaging and clinical factors, including presence of pneumonia, malignancy, average length of hospital admission, and survival.

CONCLUSION

Patients with HIV present with a wide range of imaging findings when presenting in the acute ED setting. CD4 count, viral load, and active retroviral therapy status demonstrate statistically significant associations with multiple key imaging findings and clinical factors. Chest CT plays an integral role in the clinical management of this unique patient population.

Harm reduction for smokers living with HIV

Tobacco use is now a leading cause of death in people living with HIV in the USA. Increasing cessation rates in this group is a public health priority, yet the results of clinical trials aimed at optimising tobacco treatment strategies have been largely disappointing. Combinations of behavioural and pharmacological cessation therapies in people living with HIV have yielded increases in short-term quit rates, but few have shown long-term efficacy. Even with aggressive therapy combining intensive behavioural treatment with pharmacological agents, most smokers living with HIV continue to smoke. The generalised approach to tobacco treatment that prevails in guidelines and in clinical practices might do a disservice to these individuals, who represent a sizable segment of the population of people living with HIV. Harm reduction is a sensible and needed approach for smokers living with HIV who are unable or unwilling to quit. In this Viewpoint, we take an expansive view of harm reduction to include not only cutting down on cigarette intake for persistent smokers, but also reducing smoking's downstream health effects by increasing lung cancer screening and by controlling concurrent cardiovascular risk factors, especially hypertension and hyperlipidaemia.

Mortality among people living with HIV/AIDS with non-small-cell lung cancer in the modern HAART Era

People living with HIV (PLWHA) with adequate access to modern combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) are living longer and experiencing reduced AIDS-related morbidity and mortality. However, increases in non-AIDS related conditions, such as certain cancers, have accompanied these therapeutic advances over time. As such, our study objective was to determine the impact of HIV on all-cause and lung cancer-specific mortality amongst PLWHA with diagnoses of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and HIV-negative individuals with NSCLC. This analysis was inclusive of PLWHA on and off cART over the age of 19 years and a 10% comparison sample from the BC population ≥19 years, over a 13-year period (2000-2013). Kaplan-Meier estimates, Cox PH models, and competing risk analysis for all-cause and cause-specific mortality (respectively) compared PLWHA to HIV-negative individuals, controlling for age, gender, cancer stage, co-morbidities; and nadir CD4 count, viral load, and injection drug use for a HIV-positive specific analysis. We identified 71 PLWHA and 2463 HIV-negative individuals diagnosed with NSCLC between 2000 and 2013. PLWHA with NSCLC were diagnosed at a significantly younger age than HIV-negative individuals (median age 57 vs 71 years, p < 0.01). We found no significant difference in lung cancer-specific mortality. However, in multivariate analysis, HIV was associated with greater all-cause mortality (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR]:1.44; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.08-1.90), with median survival of 4 months for PLWHA, and 10 months for HIV-negative. Higher nadir CD4 count was protective against mortality (aHR: 0.33, 95% CI: 0.17-0.64) amongst PLWHA in multivariate analysis. Our analysis suggests that PLWHA in the modern cART era experience similar lung cancer survival outcomes compared to the general BC population with NSCLC. However, we also observed significantly higher all-cause mortality among PLWHA with NSCLC, which may warrant further inquiry into the role of HIV in exacerbating mortality among PLWHA with comorbidities and cancer.

Non-infectious Pulmonary Diseases and HIV

Pulmonary complications remain among the most frequent causes of morbidity and mortality for individuals with HIV despite the advent of antiretroviral therapy (ART) and improvement in its efficacy and availability. The prevalence of non-infectious pulmonary diseases is rising in this population, reflecting both an increase in smoking and the independent risk associated with HIV. The unique mechanisms of pulmonary disease in these patients remain poorly understood, and direct effects of HIV, genetic predisposition, inflammatory pathways, and co-infections have all been implicated. Lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and pulmonary hypertension are the most prevalent non-infectious pulmonary diseases in persons with HIV, and the risk of each of these diseases is higher among HIV-infected (HIV+) persons than in the general population. This review discusses the latest advances in the literature on these important complications of HIV infection.

Mortal allies: human immunodeficiency virus and noncommunicable diseases

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

HIV-infected individuals have improved access to antiretroviral therapy. This has resulted in a shift in causes of mortality from infectious diseases to noncommunicable diseases including cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease (CKD) and malignancies. This review will look at the epidemiological shift, risk factors for the development of these diseases and examine some of the supporting laboratory diagnostic testing, which may be required.

RECENT FINDINGS

Risk factors for the development of these diseases in HIV-infected patients include underlying genetic predisposition, lifestyle risk factors, chronic inflammation as a consequence of HIV infection, the presence and persistence of opportunistic infections and in some cases, highly active antiretroviral therapy, itself. Morbidity and mortality from HIV-associated conditions are increasing in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) with increased prevalence of HIV-associated cancers, cardiovascular disease and CKD.

SUMMARY

Management of these conditions in LMICs requires an integrated pathology solution that will enable early screening, diagnosis and monitoring.

Microbiota dysbiosis in select human cancers: Evidence of association and causality

The human microbiota is a complex ecosystem of diverse microorganisms consisting of bacteria, viruses, and fungi residing predominantly in epidermal and mucosal habitats across the body, such as skin, oral cavity, lung, intestine and vagina. These symbiotic communities in health, or dysbiotic communities in disease, display tremendous interaction with the local environment and systemic responses, playing a critical role in the host's nutrition, immunity, metabolism and diseases including cancers. While the profiling of normal microbiota in healthy populations is useful and necessary, more recent studies have focused on the microbiota associated with disease, particularly cancers. In this paper, we review current evidence on the role of the human microbiota in four cancer types (colorectal cancer, head and neck cancer, pancreatic cancer, and lung cancer) proposed as affected by both the oral and gut microbiota, and provide a perspective on current gaps in the knowledge of the microbiota and cancer.

Non-acquired immunodeficiency syndrome definings malignancies among human immunodeficiency virus-positive subjects: Epidemiology and outcome after two decades of HAART era

Highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection has been widely available in industrialized countries since 1996; its widespread use determined a dramatic decline in acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS)-related mortality, and consequently, a significant decrease of AIDS-defining cancers. However the increased mean age of HIV-infected patients, prolonged exposure to environmental and lifestyle cancer risk factors, and coinfection with oncogenic viruses contributed to the emergence of other malignancies that are considered non-AIDS-defining cancers (NADCs) as a relevant fraction of morbidity and mortality among HIV-infected people twenty years after HAART introduction. The role of immunosuppression in the pathogenesis of NADCs is not well defined, and future researches should investigate the etiology of NADCs. In the last years there is a growing evidence that intensive chemotherapy regimens and radiotherapy could be safely administrated to HIV-positive patients while continuing HAART. This requires a multidisciplinary approach and a close co-operation of oncologists and HIV-physicians in order to best manage compliance of patients to treatment and to face drug-related side effects. Here we review the main epidemiological features, risk factors and clinical behavior of the more common NADCs, such as lung cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma, colorectal cancer and anal cancer, Hodgkin’s lymphoma and some cutaneous malignancies, focusing also on the current therapeutic approaches and preventive screening strategies.

Lung cancer incidence and survival among HIV-infected and uninfected women and men

OBJECTIVES

To determine the lung cancer incidence and survival time among HIV-infected and uninfected women and men.

DESIGN

Two longitudinal studies of HIV infection in the United States.

METHODS

Data from 2549 women in the Women's Interagency HIV Study (WIHS) and 4274 men in the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study (MACS), all with a history of cigarette smoking, were analyzed. Lung cancer incidence rates and incidence rate ratios were calculated using Poisson regression analyses. Survival time was assessed using Kaplan-Meier and Cox proportional-hazard analyses.

RESULTS

Thirty-seven women and 23 men developed lung cancer (46 HIV-infected and 14 HIV-uninfected) during study follow-up. In multivariable analyses, the factors that were found to be independently associated with a higher lung cancer incidence rate ratios were older age, less education, 10 or more pack-years of smoking, and a prior diagnosis of AIDS pneumonia (vs. HIV-uninfected women). In an adjusted Cox model that allowed different hazard functions for each cohort, a history of injection drug use was associated with shorter survival, and a lung cancer diagnosis after 2001 was associated with longer survival. In an adjusted Cox model restricted to HIV-infected participants, nadir CD4 lymphocyte cell count less than 200 was associated with shorter survival time.

CONCLUSIONS

Our data suggest that pulmonary damage and inflammation associated with HIV infection may be causative for the increased risk of lung cancer. Encouraging and assisting younger HIV-infected smokers to quit and to sustain cessation of smoking is imperative to reduce the lung cancer burden in this population.

[HIV-related malignancies: state of art]

HIV infection is related to an increased risk of cancer compared with general population, both AIDS-defining cancers (Kaposi's sarcoma, non Hodgkin's lymphoma, invasive cervical cancer) and non-AIDS-defining cancers. Although the advent of the highly active antiretroviral therapy era has decreased the Kaposi's sarcoma and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma incidences, non-AIDS-defining malignancies, such as lung cancer, hepatocarcinoma, anal cancer and skin cancers, remain a major cause of morbidity and death in the HIV-infected population. The clinical presentation is often different between the infected and non-infected populations, often with a more advanced stage at diagnosis, a more aggressive pathology, and associated morbidities like immunosuppression, leading to poorer outcomes. Numerous studies have focused on HIV-related malignancies' treatment, however specific guidelines are still missing. Practitioners have to be careful with interactions between antiretroviral and antineoplastic drugs, particularly through the cytochrome P 450. Because of this, a national multidisciplinary approach, "Cancer and HIV, " was started in 2013 thanks to the National Institute of Cancer (INCa). The aim of this review is to present a scientific update about AIDS-and non-AIDS-defining malignancies, both in their clinical aspects and regarding their specific therapeutic management.

Risk of cancer among HIV-infected individuals compared to the background population: impact of smoking and HIV

BACKGROUND

The relative impact of immune deficiency and lifestyle-related factors on risk of cancer in the HIV-infected population is controversial. We aimed to estimate the population-attributable fractions (PAFs) associated with smoking, being HIV-infected and with immune deficiency.

METHODS

In a Danish, nationwide, population-based cohort study (1995-2011), incidences of cancer were compared between an HIV-infected cohort and a population-based matched cohort in analyses stratified on cancer category, smoking status and for HIV patients: low CD4 cell count.

RESULTS

We included 3503 HIV patients [baseline CD4+ 450 cells/μl (inter-quartile range 310-630)] and 12,979 population controls. Smoking-related and virological cancers accounted for 23 and 43% of cancers in the HIV-infected population. The risk of these cancers were higher among HIV patients compared to controls [incidence rate ratio (IRR) 2.8, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.6-4.9; and IRR 11.5, 95% CI 6.5-20.5], whereas the risk of other cancers did not differ (IRR 1.0, 95% CI 0.7-1.3). Non-smoking HIV patients did not have increased risk of non-virological cancers compared to non-smoking controls (IRR 1.2, 95% CI 0.7-2.1). The PAFs of cancer associated with smoking and with being HIV-infected were 27 and 49%, respectively. For cancers not strongly related to smoking or viral infections, the PAFs associated with being HIV-infected and with immune deficiency were 0%.

CONCLUSION

The risk of cancer is increased in HIV patients compared to the background population. In absence of smoking, the increase in risk is confined to cancers related to viral infections, whereas the risk of other cancers is not elevated and does not seem to be associated with immune deficiency.

The complexity of HIV persistence and pathogenesis in the lung under antiretroviral therapy: challenges beyond AIDS

Antiretroviral therapy (ART) represents a significant milestone in the battle against AIDS. However, we continue learning about HIV and confronting challenges 30 years after its discovery. HIV has cleverly tricked both the host immune system and ART. First, the many HIV subtypes and recombinant forms have different susceptibilities to antiretroviral drugs, which may represent an issue in countries where ART is just being introduced. Second, even under the suppressive pressures of ART, HIV still increases inflammatory mediators, deregulates apoptosis and proliferation, and induces oxidative stress in the host. Third, the preference of HIV for CXCR4 as a co-receptor may also have noxious outcomes, including potential malignancies. Furthermore, HIV still replicates cryptically in anatomical reservoirs, including the lung. HIV impairs bronchoalveolar T-lymphocyte and macrophage immune responses, rendering the lung susceptible to comorbidities. In addition, HIV-infected individuals are significantly more susceptible to long-term HIV-associated complications. This review focuses on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), pulmonary arterial hypertension, and lung cancer. Almost two decades after the advent of highly active ART, we now know that HIV-infected individuals on ART live as long as the uninfected population. Fortunately, its availability is rapidly increasing in low- and middle-income countries. Nevertheless, ART is not risk-free: the developed world is facing issues with antiretroviral drug toxicity, resistance, and drug-drug interactions, while developing countries are confronting issues with immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome. Several aspects of the complexity of HIV persistence and challenges with ART are discussed, as well as suggestions for new avenues of research.