Abstract :
I read with interest the case report by Dworak et al on orbital atypical lipomatous tumor (ALT), a rare variety of liposarcoma, in an American patient.[1]
It is obvious that in addition to opportunistic infections, patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are also more susceptible
to various types of tumors. The origin of these
tumors is thought to be multifactorial, including
immunosuppression, co-infection with oncogenic
viruses, and life prolongation secondary to the use
of antiretroviral therapy.[2] Among these tumors,
liposarcomas have been reported in HIV-positive
patients.[3, 4] To my knowledge, HIV infection is a
distressing health threat in the United States of
America (USA). According to the available data,
an estimated 1.1 million people aged ≥ 13 years
were living with HIV infection in the USA at the
end of 2015, including an estimated 162,500 (15%)
persons with undiagnosed infections.[5] I presume
that HIV infection ought to be considered in the
patient studied in the aforementioned case. Hence,
testing of HIV status using the diagnostic panel of
CD4 count and viral overload measurements was
solicited in the studied patient. If that diagnostic
panel was conducted and disclosed HIV infection,
the case in question could surely be considered novel as HIV-associated orbital ALT has never been reported in the literature so far.
