Should Cervical Cancer Be an Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome–Defining Cancer?

In 1987, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention created a list of clinical diagnoses that defined the types of AIDS that were indicative of severe immunosuppression, especially defective cell-mediated immunity. Kaposi’s sarcoma (KS) and high-grade non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) were included in this list of AIDS-defining illnesses. More precisely, KS and primary cerebral NHL in people less than 60 years old were AIDS-defining illnesses even in the absence of HIV serology. In contrast, systemic highgrade B-cell NHL had to have either small noncleaved (Burkitt’s and Burkitt’s-like) or immunoblastic histology and have positive HIV serology to be an AIDS-defining illness. 1