Abstract
Background
Kaposi’s sarcoma (KS) is an AIDS-related condition that is mediated by HHV-8. Although incidence and mortality of KS in the United States have decreased over time since the advent of HAART, there may be disparities in mortality based on geographic location and race/ethnicity, particularly African-American men in the South.
Methods
A retrospective electronic medical record review was conducted using integrated inpatient and outpatient data in EPIC from PHHS. We included all individuals with a diagnosis of HIV and Kaposi’s sarcoma between January 1, 2009 and December 31, 2018 based on ICD-9/10 codes. We collected demographic information, HIV history, variables related to HIV and KS diagnosis, treatment and outcomes data for each patient. We calculated hazard ratios using Cox proportional hazards modeling.
Results
We identified 252 patients with KS. 95% of patients were male, and the majority were MSM (men who have sex with men; 77% of all patients). 35% of patients were Hispanic, 34% were African-American and 31% were Caucasian. Over half (56%) of patients were funded through Ryan White or were uninsured. The median CD4 count and viral load at the time of cancer diagnosis were 44 and 73,450, respectively. 24% of patients were confirmed to have died by the end of the study time frame. However, due to loss to follow-up, 35% of the cohort had an unknown vital status at the time of the final chart review. Variables most strongly associated with mortality were >2 hospitalizations in the first 6 months of cancer diagnosis (aHR=4.93, P = 0.0003), IV drug use (aHR=3.61, P = 0.0009), and T1 stage of KS (aHR= 2.13, P = 0.0264). African American patients had lower survival than Caucasian or Hispanic patients, with a 5-year survival of 69%, 81% and 80% respectively, although this did not reach statistical significance (aHR 1.77, P = 0.1396).
Conclusion
We describe a large cohort of patients with HIV and HHV-8-related disease, who are predominantly of minority race/ethnicity, uninsured, and have advanced HIV disease. Factors associated with mortality include Black/African-American ethnicity, number of hospitalizations, IV drug use and T1 stage of KS. Our mortality analysis is limited due to high lost to follow-up rates, so we suspect overall mortality in our cohort is higher than currently reported.
Disclosures
Ank E. Nijhawan, MD, MPH, Gilead Sciences, Inc.: Research Grant.
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