Abstract PL06-02: Viral-related malignancies affecting ethnic minorities and immigrant subpopulations in the United States

Abstract

Abstract Viral-related malignancies occur disparately in ethnic minority populations in the United States. Recent demographics of HIV subjects enrolled in U.S. clinical trials reveal that AIDS-related malignancies mostly affect minorities in this country. Human herpes virus-8 (HHV-8) is the etiologic cause of Kaposi's sarcoma (KS), multicentric Castleman's disease (MCD), and primary effusion lymphoma (PEL). Epstein Barr virus (EBV) is often associated with aggressive AIDS-related lymphomas (ARLs), including diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) with immunoblastic features, Burkitt lymphoma, primary CNS lymphoma (PCNSL), and plasmablastic lymphoma. Human papilloma virus (HPV) causes cervical and anal cancers, which occur more frequently in HIV patients. Adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATLL) is a deadly disease which is rarely seen in the United States but commonly occurs in African descendant immigrants to the Eastern United States and South Florida from the Caribbean (particularly Haiti and Jamaica) where the virus in endemic. At the University of Miami we see and treat more patients with these illnesses combined than any other institution in the nation. About 10% of our ATLL patients are co-infected with HIV. We have been key participants in AIDS malignancy Consortium (AMC) lymphoma clinical trials, and under our viral oncology program we devote a number of translational and molecular studies towards the understanding the pathophysiology of these illnesses. In this section, the clinical spectrum, trends, biology, and treatment of AIDS-related malignancies and adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma in the United States will be reviewed. Investigational therapies, disease models, and recent molecular findings from the analyses of these tumors using state of the art technologies will also be discussed. Citation Information: Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2010;19(10 Suppl):PL06-02.