Prospective HIV Chemotherapy Cohort Study

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection is very successfully treated with a type of therapy called Highly Active AntiRetroviral Therapy (HAART). Although HAART has made a great improvement to the health and lives of all people living with HIV, HAART cannot be stopped because it is not able to 'cure' or eliminate the HIV virus from all cells in the body - the remaining viruses are referred to as 'latent' or sleeping virus. As soon as the HAART treatment is stopped the virus comes back (wakes up). It is for this reason that stopping HAART treatment is not recommended. However, it may be that other drugs if given with HAART could have a stronger effect on the latent virus. There is some evidence from laboratory research that suggests that some of the drugs we use to treat certain types of cancer may have an effect on the latent virus. The purpose of this research study is to use new laboratory research technology to measure the amount of 'latent' virus in people who are treated with HAART who then need to use chemotherapy treatments for cancer. We will look at whether the levels of HIV virus are reduced in patients having chemotherapy by looking at the virus levels before, during and after chemotherapy treatment. We do not know very much about how HIV persists in the body despite therapy and unless new approaches are developed, removal of the HIV virus from all cells in the body will not be possible.