Association between HIV/AIDS and malignancies in a Nigerian tertiary institution

Following the outbreak of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection in 1981, there has been a widespread increase in the incidence of many malignancies including non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, cervical carcinoma and Kaposi's sarcoma. The scarcity of reports linking HIV infection with malignancies in Nigeria necessitated this study. We prospectively screened one hundred patients with various forms of malignancies seen at the University College Hospital Ibadan, Nigeria between October 2001 and June 2002 for HIV infection by the Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) method and confirmed with the Western Blot method.

Six of the patients were found to be seropositive for HIV antibodies. There were 41 males (41%) and 59 females (59%) with age ranging from 7 months to 80 years and a median of 46 years. The HIV seropositive patients were between 29 and 35 years of age. Two patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) and one patient each with carcinoma of the cervix, Kaposi's sarcoma. Hodgkin's lymphoma and carcinoma of the breast were HIV seropositive. All the p values were greater than 0.05.

The seroprevalence of HIV infection in patients with malignancies in this study was 6%. Despite the HIV/AIDS epidemic, there is yet no significant statistical relationship between HIV infection and malignancies in this environment. Larger, preferably multicenter studies need to be carried out to ascertain the relationship between HIV infection and malignancies in Nigeria.