Breast cancer and HIV

Abstract

Reddy et al. present a worthy and timely review on breast cancer in HIV-infected patients. There is clearly a paucity of robust data on this important and common simultaneity. Some older retrospective reports describe mainly experiences of the pre-antiretroviral era. This information is outdated. Some good epidemiological studies have recently been published, such as that from Soweto by Cubasch et al. As pointed out by Reddy et al. there is a great dearth of knowledge that would come from prospective studies of the management of breast cancer in HIV-infected patients. Intuition might dictate that the outcome of both surgical and adjuvant treatment of breast cancer in these patients would be poor because of the effect on immunity.