Complications of HIV Infection Study Group

Malignancies, particularly Kaposi's sarcoma and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL), are associated with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. Cancer incidence among 1,073 asymptomatic HIV-infected individuals from the Pulmonary Complications of HIV Infection Study cohort, persons from six states followed from 1988 to 1994, was examined. Total cancer incidence was 3.99/100 person-years; for Kaposi's sarcoma, incidence was 2.64 cases/100 person-years, and for NHL, it was 1.18 cases/100 person-years. Total cancer (n = 156 cases) was higher among nonblacks than among blacks (rate ratio = 2.8, 95 % confidence interval 1.3-6.1), with similar results for Kaposi's sarcoma and NHL. The rate of lung cancer (n = 5) among white, homosexual/bisexual males was 0.18 per 100 person-years, suggesting a high risk of lung cancer. Am J Epidemiol 1997; 146:470-5. ethnic groups; HIV; homosexuality; lung neoplasms; lymphoma, non-Hodgkin's; neoplasms; sarcoma, Kaposi's; substance abuse, intravenous Kaposi's sarcoma, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL), and other malignancies are associated with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection ( 1-14). Few reports analyze the incidence of cancer in HIV-infected populations without a prior acquired im-munodeficiency syndrome (AIDS)-defining disease (15-21). We examined the incidence of total cancer, Kaposi's sarcoma, and NHL among a longitudinally studied, multiracial cohort of HIV-infected homosex-ual/bisexual (H/B) men and male and female injection drug users. MATERIALS AND METHODS The design of the Pulmonary Complications of HIV Infection Study, a cohort of 1,353 individuals from six US sites followed from 1988 through 1994, is de-Received for publication November 6,1995, and in final form Ma