Opportunistic cancers in patients with immunodeficiency syndromes.

Patients with inherited or acquired immunodeficiency disorders are vulnerable to a broad spectrum of opportunistic infectious diseases, but a narrow spectrum of malignancies. These malignancies--B-cell lymphomas, Kaposi's sarcomas, and squamous cell carcinomas--are likely due to failure of immune surveillance to recognize virally transformed target cells. The evidence for this hypothesis is substantial regarding Epstein-Barr virus-induced lymphoproliferative lesions in immunodeficient patients.