ABSTRACT
Approximately 30–40% of patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection are likely to develop malignancies during the course of their disease. Extranodal involvement is more common in the non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) affecting HIV-infected patients and some primary extranodal localizations are typical of HIV-associated lymphoma entities. Lymphoma progression is the leading cause of death in 35–55% of the patients with HIV-NHL receiving chemotherapy, of whom around 50% of patients need second-line chemotherapy following progression or relapse of the disease. In HIV-NHLs the conventional prognostic factors influencing survival in lymphoma patients in the general population have been used together with HIV-specific factors. In Western countries, Hodgkin’s disease has been the non-acquired immunodeficiency syndrome-defining disease that has reached the most consistently increasing incidence rate among HIV-positive patients. Prognosis for HIV-associated lymphoma patients, with or without extranodal involvement, could be improved by using better combined chemotherapy protocols incorporating anticancer treatments and antiretroviral drugs.
