Cancer Immunotherapy Likely Safe, Effective for Those With HIV, Other Infections, Study Suggests

Patients with cancer who also have viral infections, such as HIV, hepatitis B virus (HBV), and hepatitis C virus (HCV) should not be excluded from immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) studies, according to a new study published in the Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer.

Although the researchers state that more studies are needed to validate their findings, they found that patients who also had HIV, HBV, or HCV who were being treated with ICI therapy had similar rates of efficacy and toxicity to patients without chronic viral infections. Additionally, found no viral reactivation. Tumor responses occurred in patients with HIV with low CD4 T-cell counts.

This retrospective analysis looked at patients with advanced-stage cancers and HIV, HBV, or HCV infection treated with ICI therapy at 5 MedStar Health hospitals from January 2011 to April 2018.

Previously, patients with chronic viral infections were excluded from ICI therapy, a type of cancer immunotherapy that works through suppression of immune inhibitory pathways such as the programmed cell death protein-1 (PD-1)/programmed death-ligand-1 (PD-L1) axis and the cytotoxic lymphocytes antigen proteins (CTLA-4) pathway.

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