Abstract 89: The Effect of HIV and Antiretroviral Treatment on National Cancer Patterns in South Africa

Abstract Purpose: South Africa has 8 million people living with HIV (PLHIV), most of whom are in the lower socioeconomic status. The country’s HIV landscape has transformed from the onset of the epidemic, through to the national Antiretroviral treatment (ART) program rollout in 2004 which has become the largest ART program in the world. PLHIV are living longer. We aimed to describe the changing patterns of the ten most diagnosed cancers from 2000 to 2022 in the era of HIV and ART. Methods: Published reports of pathologically diagnosed cancers from the National Cancer Registry of South Africa for the period 2000 to 2022 were analysed. For each year, reported age-standardized incidence rates (ASIRs) of cancers were ranked to extract the ten with the highest ASIRs. The trends of the data were analysed and plotted on a chart. Results: Breast cancer and cervical cancer consistently ranked first and second (respectively) most diagnosed cancers among females while prostate cancer consistently ranked most diagnosed among the males. From about 2006 (2 years after national roll-out of ART in the country), the incidence of Kaposi sarcoma has been declining in both males and females. On the contrary, there has been a steady increase in the incidence of Non-Hodgkins lymphoma (NHL) and cervical cancer has remained consistently high. Cancers such as melanoma and cancer of the vulva have also been on the increase. Conclusion: The introduction of ART has seen a decline in the cancer incidence rates over the years in some of the HIV-associated cancers, while others like NHL have been on the increase. Cervical cancer incidence, however, has remained high despite the introduction of ART. Effective prevention and control of human papilloma virus (HPV) infection is key to decreasing cervical cancer and cancer of the vulva which has also been increasing. Citation Format: Judith Mwansa-Kambafwile, Nkhensani Mhlanga, Ann Chao, Bilqees Sayed, Mazvita Muchengeti. The Effect of HIV and Antiretroviral Treatment on National Cancer Patterns in South Africa [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 13th Annual Symposium on Global Cancer Research; 2025 Sep 16. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2025;34(12_Suppl):Abstract nr 89.