HIV infection raises the risk of cancer and has been related to malignancies connected to infectious agents recognized as carcinogenic to humans by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. Lymphomas are one of the most common cancers among HIV patients. After the development of combination antiretroviral treatment, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma remained a major malignancy (cART). Other lymphomas, such as Burkitt lymphoma, primary effusion lymphomas, and plasmablastic lymphoma of the oral cavity, have remained steady, although Hodgkin lymphoma and Kaposi sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV)-associated multicentric Castleman disease, have grown.
The complexity of the involved pathogenetic mechanisms (i.e., HIV-induced immunosuppression, genetic abnormalities, cytokine dysregulation, and coinfection with the gammaherpesviruses Epstein-Barr virus and KSHV) and the dysregulation of the immune responses controlling these viruses are likely to be responsible for the heterogeneity of lymphomas in HIV-infected patients. In the present cART era, conventional therapies for HIV-associated lymphoma, including stem cell transplantation in relapsed/refractory illness, were the same as those used in the general population. The combination of cART with antineoplastic therapies resulted in a significant increase in long-term survival. Oncolytic and immunotherapeutic methods, as well as medicines targeting particular viral oncogenes, were, nonetheless, required.
