HIV portends a poor prognosis in myelodysplastic syndromes

Even though HIV is associated with worse prognosis in many malignancies, the clinical course of myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) in HIV + patients has not been well studied. Determining the clinical presentation and outcomes of MDS in these patients would be important for future diagnostic strategies, as anemia and other cytopenias are commonly seen in HIV + patients. Unique data mining software was used to identify cases of MDS or AML in adult patients who were also HIV + at Albert Einstein/Montefiore Medical Center between 1 January 2003 and 1 January 2017. Using Chi-Square and Fisher’s exact test, characteristics of the HIV + MDS patients were compared to 135 HIV − MDS patients from the same institution diagnosed between 1997 and 2011. Fourteen biopsy proven MDS patients were identified with concomitant HIV. HIV + MDS patients presented at a younger age (59 vs. 71 yrs, p =.001) had higher risk disease, faster progression to acute leukemia, and worse overall survival (median survival 11.2 vs. 69.1 mo, p <.001) compared to HIV − MDS controls. Additionally, there was a higher prevalence of clonal-hematopoiesis related mutations (ASXL1, DNMT3A) and a higher proportion of patients with high risk cytogenetics. Analysis of the largest single center cohort of HIV + MDS patients demonstrated that these individuals present at a significantly younger age and with higher risk disease than their HIV − counterparts.