People with lung cancer have about a 50 percent higher risk of death if they are living with HIV.

Publishing their findings in the journal Medicine, researchers conducted a meta-analysis of 12 cohort studies that analyzed the association between HIV and risk of death among those with lung cancer.

Eleven of the studies were conducted in North America and one was conducted in Europe. The cohort size in each study ranged from 29 to 328,924 people. Follow-up times ranged from one to five years. Three of the studies specifically analyzed those with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), while the other nine studies did not break down their results based on lung cancer type.

After pooling the results of these studies, the study authors found that among those with lung cancer, having HIV, compared with not having the virus, was associated with a 1.48-fold increased likelihood of dying. The investigators excluded two low-quality studies from their analysis and found the relative risk of death remained about the same, at 1.51-fold. Excluding any one study from the analysis also did not change this figure significantly.

To read the study, click here.