Pappou EP, et al. - Researchers aimed at delineating outcomes of anal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) treatment in HIV-positive and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-negative patients. They observed that among patients with anal SCC, HIV infection was not associated with a significantly higher relapse rate or worse 5-year overall survival. A higher rate of relapse was evident in association with highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) in HIV-positive patients. Regardless of HIV status, AJCC staging predicted survival in both relapsed and non-relapsed patients.

Methods

• Researchers performed a retrospective single-institution analysis on all patients with anal SCC treated at the Johns Hopkins Hospital between 1991 and 2010.
• Five-year overall survival (5-year OS), median survival, and relapse rates were the primary outcome measures.

Results

• Ninety-three patients with anal SCC were identified (mean age was 54 years; 37.6% were male, and 21.5% were HIV-positive).
• Patients were followed-up for a median period of 28 months.
• In 16.1% of patients, relapse occurred; median time was 20 months.
• With HIV-positive vs negative patients, relapse rates were slightly higher (30.0 vs 12.3%), however, the difference did not reach statistical significance (p=0.06).
• Patients who relapsed were more likely to be on HAART than those who did not relapse (83.3 vs 14.3%, p=0.007) among HIV-positive patients.
• For the total group of patients, 5-year OS was 58.9%; no significant difference was evident between those who relapsed vs those who did not (76.2 vs 54.5%, p=0.20).
• HIV-positive and negative patients showed no survival difference.
• In all patients, survival was associated with AJCC stage.