Topor Laura 1, Nedelea S. 2, Mărdărescu Mariana 3
1 “Grigore Alexandrescu” Clinical Emergency Hospital for Children
2 ”Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest, Romania
3 National Institute for Infectious Diseases “Prof. Dr. Matei Bals”, Bucharest, Romania
Abstract
Background: Prevalence of HIV-related malignancies is increasing along with higher survival time due to development of highly active antiretroviral chemotherapy. Risk factors for the development of HIV-related malignancies in pediatric population are less certain. Methods: This retrospective study involves 59 HIV-positive children admitted to the Matei Bals Infectious Diseases Institute from 1st of January 2005 to 1st of January 2010. Results: Even though there are differences in sex distribution, age, place of residence, duration of treatment, prior zidovudine use and viral load, these are not statistically relevant. Patients with low CD4 count have a two times greater risk for HIV-related malignancy development and a 4 times greater risk for death. Conclusions: Risk factors for the development of HIV-related malignancies are yet to be identified. A low CD4 count is an important risk factor both for malignancy and survival. The evolution of the two main malignancies is very different, with a much higher survival time for NHL than for Kaposi’s sarcoma