Seroprevalence of Anti-Toxoplasma gondii Antibodies among Patients with Cancer at Hiwa Cancer Hospital in Sulaimani City, Kurdistan Region, Iraq

Toxoplasma gondii is an opportunistic protozoan parasite that causes a life-threatening disease – toxoplasmosis – in immunocompromised individuals, including patients with cancer. This prospective cross-sectional study set out to determine the prevalence of toxoplasmosis in patients with cancer compared with that of healthy individuals.

A prospective cross-sectional study was conducted in Sulaimani City of Iraq from November 2019 to May 2020. Anti-T. gondii IgG and IgM antibodies were measured in the blood samples of 113 patients with cancer (80 with solid organ tumors and 33 with haematological malignancies) entered to Hiwa Cancer Hospital and 82 healthy controls, who were referred to the Directorate of Blood Transfusion for blood donation, using chemiluminescence microparticle immunoassay (CMIA).

The prevalence of anti-T. gondii IgG was 39.8% in the patient group and 24.4% in the control group, which amounted to a significant difference (P = 0.024). Only one case of anti-T. gondii IgM positivity was observed in the patient group, and no IgM seropositivity was reported in the control group. Moreover, the seroprevalence of anti-T. gondii IgG was non-significantly higher (P = 0.102) in the patients with haematological malignancies (51.5%) than in those with solid organ tumors (35%). Occupation was the only risk factor which had a significant association with T gondii infection (odds ratio [OR]: 1.3, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.6746163 - 2.4282788, P = 0.029).

The prevalence of T. gondii infection is higher in patients with cancer than in healthy individuals. Therefore, T. gondii screening in patients with cancer is recommended.