RISK OF CANCER OTHER THAN KAPOSIS-SARCOMA AND NON-HODGKINS-LYMPHOMA IN PERSONS WITH AIDS IN ITALY

Record linkage was carried out between the national Registry of AIDS a nd 13 Cancer Registries (CRs) covering, in 1991, about 15% of the Ital ian population. Observed and expected numbers of cancers and standardi zed incidence ratios (SIRs) were assessed in 6067 persons with AIDS, f or a total of 25 759 person-years. Significantly increased SIRs were f ound for Hodgkin's disease [8.9, 95% confidence interval (CI) 4.4-16.0 ], in which seven of 11 cases were of mixed cellularity type; invasive carcinoma of the cervix uteri (15.5; 95% CI 4.0-40.1); and non-melano matous skin cancer (3.0, 95% CI 1.3-5.9), in which five of eight cases were basal cell carcinoma. An excess was also seen for brain tumours, but this may be partly due to misdiagnosis of brain non-Hodgkin's lym phoma or other brain diseases occurring near the time of the AIDS diag nosis. The risk for all cancer types, after exclusion of Kaposi's sarc oma (KS) and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL), was approximately twice the general population risk. An increased SIR for Hodgkin's disease in pe rsons with AIDS is thus confirmed, though it is many times smaller tha n that for NHL. An association with invasive carcinoma of the cervix i s also shown at a population level. The excess of non-melanomatous ski n cancer seems to be lower than in transplant recipients.