Malignancies in HIV infected children at a tertiary cancer hospital in India

Methods An observational study was done of pediatric patients diagnosed with cancer and who were HIV-infected at the Tata Memorial Cancer Hospital, a tertiary referral cancer centre in Mumbai, India. The study period was 2001 to 2007. Data regarding demographic profiles, types of cancers, stage of cancer, treatment and outcome, immune status was analyzed. We used gender and age-specific proportions of pediatric cancer which were recorded in the Tata Hospital cancer registry in 2002 to estimate an expected number of pediatric cancers among HIV positive pediatric cancer patients during the 2001 to 2007. The proportional incidence ratio (PIR) was calculated.