Neoplastic complications of HIV infection.

Approximately 30%-40% of patients with HIV infection are likely to develop malignancies during the course of their disease. With the improved survival of patients with HIV infection due to the better prevention and treatment of infectious complications, as well as the development of more effective antiretroviral therapies, there may be an increase of malignant tumors, in particular those non-diagnostic of AIDS [1-6]. Three malignancies are currently considered to be AIDS-defining conditions: Kaposi's sarcoma (KS); intermediate or high-grade B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL); invasive cervical cancer (ICC). In addition, Hodgkin's disease (HD) has been increasingly described in HIV setting with peculiar clinicopathologic features [7]. Possible increases in anal, head and neck, lung and testicular carcinoma, melanoma and plasma cell myeloma have recently been reported [8, 9]. In this chapter, we will describe the epidemiology, pathology, clinical features and treatment of the most common malignant tumors in patients with HIV infection.