Quality of Life Gain Following Treatment Among Breast Cancer Survivors With and Without HIV

Women living with HIV (WLWH) experience decreased breast cancer survival. We sought to determine whether WLWH surviving breast cancer also experienced different quality of life (QOL) gain.

Women who enrolled in the Thabatse Cancer Cohort across oncology centers in Botswana for the initial treatment of stage I-III breast cancer from October 2010 to February 2022 were included. Exclusion criteria were no documented definitive therapy and incomplete data at treatment end or 24 ± 3 months after treatment. QOL was measured quarterly using the SF-8 questionnaire. G methods using weighted exposure and outcome modules were used to mitigate potential bias from imbalances in demographic and cancer characteristics by HIV status. Primary analysis was change in physical component summary (PCS) and mental component summary (MCS) from treatment end to 24 months after treatment for WLWH compared with women without HIV.

Of 603 women enrolled, the final analysis included 298, comprising 85 WLWH and 213 women without HIV. Most common reasons for exclusion were no documented definitive treatment (n = 114) and death before 21 months after treatment (n = 137). WLWH were younger, were less wealthy, and had more estrogen receptor/progesterone receptor positive tumors. Overall, PCS and MCS significantly increased from treatment end to 24 months after treatment, from 50.8 to 52.8 and 51.8 to 53.7, respectively. There was no difference in the change of the PCS or MCS with HIV infection, 2.2 (95% CI, -0.4 to 4.9) and 0.6 (95% CI, -1.7 to 2.9), respectively.

HIV infection did not impede QOL gain at 24 months after treatment in women surviving breast cancer. Further work is needed to clarify the role of HIV on specific treatment-related morbidities and in other malignancies.