Correspondence Address:
Prof. Mahmood Dhahir Al-Mendalawi
Al-Mendalawi, P. O. Box 55302, Baghdad Post Office, Baghdad
Iraq

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Sir,

In the latest published issue of the Nigerian Journal of Surgical Sciences, Omoregie et al.[1] described nicely a case of parosteal osteosarcoma (PO) of the maxilla in a Nigerian patient. I assume that the rare occurrence of that tumor at an unusual site should alert the authors to take into consideration defective immunity in the studied patient. Among conditions closely correlated with defective immune status, infection with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is paramount. It is obvious that HIV-infective individuals are at increased risk to various types of tumors compared to individuals with healthy immune system. This has been suggested to be related to different factors, namely low immunity, co-infection with oncogenic viruses, and life prolongation due to the use of antiretroviral treatment.[2] Nigeria is one of sub-Saharan countries markedly challenging the dreadful effects of HIV infection. The recently published data pointed out to the substantial seroprevalence of HIV (3.2%) in Nigeria.[3] Therefore, defining HIV status in the studied patient by implementing the diagnostic panel of blood CD4 lymphocyte count and viral overload measurements would have solicited. If that panel was to reveal HIV reactivity, the case in question could be explicitly regarded a novel case report. This is because HIV-associated maxillary PO has never been published in the world literature so far.

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