Disseminated, lethal prostate cancer during human immunodeficiency virus infection presenting with non-specific features. Open questions for urologists, oncologists, and infectious disease specialists.

BACKGROUND

Prostate cancer is a very infrequent occurrence in persons aged 55 years or less, and it has been rarely reported in HIV-infected patients (10 overall cases so far); therefore, an increased incidence compared with the general population has not been established, although a younger age seems more frequent among population with HIV disease.

METHODS

We report a case of metastatic prostate cancer occurred in a 53-year-old HIV-infected man, admitted due to non-specific signs, and symptoms: impaired general conditions, fever, weight loss, fatigue, and exertional dyspnea. A remarkable anemia and an aortic systolic murmur were the prominent initial findings, while AIDS-related conditions were not suspected due to a sustained CD4+ count and a contained viremia, which never required antiretroviral therapy. Repeated red blood cell transfusions and an empiric, combined antimicrobial therapy were promptly carried out, under the suspicion of infectious endocarditis, but no appreciable improvement of clinical conditions was achieved. Subsequently, our patient complained not only of an increasingly severe pain at the root of his left thigh, together with overcoming dysuria and urgency, but also urinary tract infection that was rapidly ruled out. During the diagnostic workup for an HIV-associated fever of undetermined origin, a bone marrow biopsy disclosed a metastatic prostatic cancer, with elevated prostate specific antigen (PSA) and acid phosphate levels. An abdominal-pelvic ultrasonography and computerized tomographic scan allowed to detect a dyshomogeneous endopelvic expansive mass with extrinsic compression of the urinary bladder, and involvement of the last lumbar vertebra, large portions of pelvis, and the proximal epiphysis of the right femur. A skeleton scintigraphy pointed out multiple hypercaptation (areas of concentrated traces of radioactivity) areas with involvement of cranial, cervical, dorsal, lumbar, and sacral vertebrae, as well as the pelvis and upper portions of both femurs. Despite therapeutic attempts, our patient deceased after seven weeks due to an overwhelming disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC).

CONCLUSIONS

The non-specific clinical presentation of our case (mimicking other generalized or focal illnesses), and the final, lethal complication (DIC) pose striking problems related to the differential diagnosis during HIV disease, while the rapid evolution into an advanced, complicated, and widely metastatic disease with extensive bone marrow invasion which preceded the appearance of local signs-symptoms, and the lethal overwhelming DIC, deserves attention by specialists who care for HIV-infected subjects.