ABSTRACT
Immunodeficiency alters the risk of cancer. Every specific state of immunodeficiency is associated with an increased incidence of certain types of cancer. Most of the immunodeficiency-associated tumors are virus induced, and they are accompanied by a persistent viral infection, including human herpes virus 8 (HHV-8) in Kaposi's sarcoma, Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) in nonHodgkin's lymphoma (NHL), and human papillomavirus (HPV) in cervical cancer. HIV itself rarely causes cancer; rather, it helps oncogenic viruses to escape the immune system and induce cancer [4,5].
