January 27, 2009

HIV Treatment Boosts Lung Cancer Survival in People With HIV

HIV-positive people with lung cancer have increased survival if they are receiving antiretroviral (ARV) treatment along with cancer treatment, according to a study published online in the journal Lung Cancer and reported by aidsmap.com. This is one of the first studies to find a direct impact of ARV treatment on surviving a non-AIDS-related cancer.

While ARV therapy directly affects survival with AIDS-related cancers such as Kaposi’s sarcoma, its impact on non-AIDS related cancers is less clear. Experts have concluded that the enhanced survival seen with these other cancers was likely due to protection from opportunistic infections and other HIV-related complications. The current study reached different conclusions.

To determine the impact of ARV therapy, Armelle Lavolé, MD, from the Université Paris in France and her colleagues studied the medical records of 49 people with HIV who were diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer. The researchers analyzed patients’ ARV therapy use, smoking history, age and other factors associated with lung cancer survival. Most of the patients were men. The average age was 46, and most had been smoking for nearly 30 years. Some of the patients had surgery, and most tried chemotherapy. The overall survival rate one year after lung cancer diagnosis was 34 percent; after five years, it was 7 percent.

Lavolé’s team found that ARV therapy increased an individual’s survival time by 60 percent: nine months for ARV-takers compared with a little more than four months for the others. They concluded that the increased survival rate resulted from some effect of ARV treatment on the cancer, rather than simply from ARV’s ability to reduce AIDS-related complications. “To our knowledge, this is the first study demonstrating that [ARV treatment] is a good prognostic factor for survival in HIV-infected patients with non-small cell lung cancer,” said the authors.

They recommend that infectious disease specialists and oncologists work as a team to care for people with HIV who are diagnosed with lung cancer.

Search: Lung cancer, small-cell, Armelle Lavolé, Université Paris, Kaposi's sarcoma

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