Epidemiology and survival outcomes of HIV-associated cervical cancer in Nigeria

INTRODUCTION: Invasive cervical cancer (ICC) is an HIV-associated cancer that is preventable and precancerous stages including early ICC stages could be detected through screening offering opportunities for treatment and cure. The high incidence in women living with HIV and late presentation often at advanced stages of ICC with limited treatment facilities often result in early mortality. We sought to compare the epidemiologic characteristics and survival differences in HIV status of ICC patients in Nigeria. METHODS: We conducted a cohort study at two federal academic hospital-based research sites in Jos University Teaching Hospital, and Lagos University Teaching Hospital Nigeria, between March 2018 and September 2022. We enrolled women with histologically confirmed ICC with known HIV status, and FIGO staging as part of the United States of America’s National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute funded project titled ‘Epigenomic Biomarkers of HIV-Associated Cancers in Nigeria’. The primary outcome was all-cause mortality with assessment of overall survival (OS) and time to death after ICC diagnosis. OS distribution was estimated using the method of Kaplan–Meier and compared between groups using the log-rank test. RESULTS: A total of 239 women with confirmed ICC were enrolled and included in this analysis, of whom 192 (80.3%) were HIV-negative (HIV−/ICC +), and 47 (19.7%) were HIV-positive (HIV +/ICC +). The HIV +/ICC + patients were younger with median age 46 (IQR: 40–51) years compared to 57 (IQR: 45–66) among HIV−/ICC + (P < 0.001). Squamous cell carcinoma was the commonest histopathologic variant in 80.4% of ICC diagnosis, moderately differentiated tumor grade in 68.1% in both groups. HIV +/ICC + diagnosis was at FIGO advanced stages in 64.9% compared to 47.9% in HIV−/ICC +. The HIV−/ICC + women had better OS compared to HIV +/ICC + participants (p = 0.018), with 12-month OS 84.1% (95%CI 75–90%) and 67.6% (95%CI 42–84%) respectively. CONCLUSION: ICC is diagnosed at a relatively young age in women living with HIV, with a significantly lower overall survival probability compared to women without HIV. The trend of presentation and diagnosis at advanced stages in women living with HIV could partly explain the differences in overall survival. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13027-023-00550-7.