New treatment strategies for HIV-positive cancer patients undergoing anticancer medical treatment: update of the literature

- The introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy (ART) has deeply modified the outcome of HIV patients by improving their overall survival and ameliorating their quality of life (QoL). The prolongation of these patients' survival has led to an increased risk of highly diffused non-infectious diseases, e.g., cardio-vascular diseases, endocrine disease, neurolog-ical diseases, and cancer. The management of antiretroviral therapy and anticancer agents (AC) can be challenging, due to the possible drug-drug interactions (DDI) be-tween AC and ART. For this reason, a multidisci-plinary approach is always preferred as demon-strated by the GICAT (Italian Cooperation Group on AIDS and Tumors). This review aims to analyze the current scientific data regarding the possible effects of ART on the management of HIV -posi-tive cancer patients and to evaluate the possi-ble DDIs that must be taken into consideration when co-administrating ART and AC. A collabo-ration between all the involved professional fig-ures, particularly infectious disease specialists and oncologists, represents the key to the correct managing of these patients in order to guarantee the best oncological outcome possible.