Abstract: OBJECTIVE To understand the prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection in cancer patients and analyze the characteristics so as to provide guidance for clinical diagnosis and treatment. METHODS The HIV antibody was tested for 138 937 cancer patients who were treated in the hospital from Jan 2008 to Dec 2013, and the HIV antibody-positive tumor patients were screened out.The clinical data of the patients were retrospectively surveyed, and the statistical analysis of data was performed with the use of SPSS16.0 software. RESULTS The HIV antibody was tested positive in 104 of 138 937 cancer patients, with the positive rate 0.75‰, and the positive rate showed an upward trend.Of the HIV antibody-positive cancer patients, 23.08% had lung cancer, 25.96% had cervical cancer, 13.46% had lymphoma, and 8.65% had esophageal cancer.The infection rate was the highest in the patients aged between 40 and 45 years old.Among the tumor patients with the infection, 41.35% were infected through clinical transfusion, and 18.27% were infected through paid blood donation. CONCLUSION It is an effective way to take the treatment measures aiming at the prevalence and characteristics of the HIV infection in the tumor patients and prevent the spread of HIV and nosocomial infection so as to reduce the risk of secondary malignancies in the patients with HIV infection.