Concomitant cancers in AIDS patients: a case report from Iran

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) are worldwide problems that lead to high rates of morbidity and mortality. Malignancies are important causes of death among patients; lymphoma and Kaposi sarcoma are the most common malignancies in HIV-positive and AIDS patients, but concurrence of these cancers in the same patient has rarely been reported. We present a 33-year-old female patient who had been diagnosed with an AIDS-related high-grade central nervous system lymphoma, based on results of stereotactic biopsy, and had undergone radiotherapy and combined antiretroviral therapy. She was referred to our center with a productive cough, bilateral lung nodules, and skin lesion. Computed tomography-guided biopsies of skin lesion and pulmonary nodules were compatible with Kaposi sarcoma. Patient's pulmonary nodules and skin lesion resolved over the course of therapy, based on imaging findings; her brain lesions did not progress. These findings suggest that dual malignancies related to HIV infection can occur in patients who are receiving antiretroviral therapy and have virologic suppression. To our knowledge, concomitant malignancies in HIV-positive or AIDS patients are rare, and the authors would like to advocate the assessment of dual cancers among these patients to optimize therapeutic course and outcome.