No significant change in rates of mortality was found for severe immune suppression as either expressed by most recent CD4 counts linked to the time of cancer diagnosis using 200 cells/μl as the cut-off (IRR 1.15 (95% CI 0.86–1.55), p = 0.349) or the lowest ever measured CD4 count using a cut-off of 200 cells/μl (IRR 1.07 (95% CI 0.80–1.44), p = 0.629). Here, CD4 is linked to cancer.