Linfomas asociados a infección por Virus de Inmunodeficiencia Humana: Experiencia de un centro hospitalario de la V región, Chile

Abstract

Background: The incidence of lymphoma increases enormously in patients infected with the human immunodefi ciency virus (HIV). Aim: To describe the incidence, clinical and histological characteristics, treatments and survival of lymphomas associated with HIV infection. Material and Methods: Retrospective review of medical records of patients with HIV and Lymphoma, treated in a public hospital, between January 2001 and June 2009. Results: Twenty-two male patients were included but 14 had immunohistochemical confi rmation of the lymphoma. The accumulated incidence for this period was 2.8%. The median age at lymphoma diagnosis was 39.5 years. Twelve patients (86%) had non-Hodgkin Lymphoma (NHL) and two (14%) Hodgkin Lymphoma. The main pathological type of non-Hodgkin lymphomas was diffuse large B cell in seven cases (50%). The mean CD 4 cell count and viral load were 83 cell/mm 3 (33.5-113.5) and 26.000 RNA copies/ml (1210-196500), respectively. Twelve patients (86%) had B type symptoms of lymphoma at the moment of diagnosis. Eleven patients (29%) received chemotherapy with or without radiotherapy, one patient (7%) received radiotherapy alone and two patients (14%) received palliative symptomatic treatment. Six cases (43%) received highly active antiretroviral therapy simultaneously with chemotherapy. Global mortality in this series was 57% (8 patients) with a median survival time of 5.8 months (2.6-26.2). Conclusions: In this series of patients infected with HIV, a predominance of aggressive histological subtypes of lymphomas and low complete remission rates, were observed.