title: AIDS and associated malignancies.
abstract: AIDS associated malignancies (ARL) is a major complication associated with AIDS patients upon immunosuppression. Chronically immunocompromised patients have a markedly increased risk of developing lymphoproliferative disease. In the era of potent antiretrovirals therapy (ARV), the malignant complications due to HIV-1 infection have decreased in developed nations where ARV is administered, but still poses a major problem in developing countries where HIV-1 incidence is high and ARV is still not yet widely available. Even in ARV treated individuals there is a concern that the prolonged survival of many HIV-1 carriers is likely to eventually result in an increased number of malignancies diagnosed. Malignancies that were found to have high incidence in HIV-infected individuals are Kaposi's sarcoma (KS), Hodgkin's disease (HD) and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL). The incidence of NHL has increased nearly 200 fold in HIV-positive patients, and accounts for a greater percentage of AIDS defining illness in the US and Europe since the advent of HAART therapy. These AIDS related lymphomas are distinct from their counterparts seen in HIV-1 seronegative patients. For example nearly half of all cases of ARL are associated with the presence of a gamma herpesvirus, Epstein Barr virus (EBV) or human herpesvirus-8 (HHV-8)/ Kaposi's sarcoma associated herpesvirus (KSHV). The pathogenesis of ARLs is complex. B-cell proliferation driven by chronic antigenemia resulting in the induction of polyclonal and ultimately monoclonal lymphoproliferation may occur in the setting of severe immunosuppression.
authors.affiliation: Nebraska Center for Virology and School of Biological Sciences, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE 68588, USA. cwood1@unl.edu
authors.forename: Charles
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wood
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Harrington
mesh_terms: D000163:Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome / Q000150:complications* / Q000188:drug therapy; D006678:HIV / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000378:metabolism / Q000821:virology*