Certain Cancers More Common With HIV
September 25, 2009 by Marijke Durning, RN
Filed under Diseases & Conditions
People with HIV are living longer with the use of antiretroviral drugs, but some of that may come at a cost. Researchers have noticed that certain types of cancers, such as anal, lung, Hodgkin’s, melanoma or liver cancer are more common in this group. People with HIV have a 60% higher chance of developing these cancers than do people who don’t have HIV.
Researchers looked at 66,840 patients who had cancer and did not have HIV and 33,420 who had cancer and did have HIV. The types of cancers the researchers were looking for (anal, lung, liver, etc) were cancers that were considered non-AIDS-defining cancers, unlike a cancer like Karposi’s sarcoma, which is closely linked to AIDS.
The researchers aren’t sure about why the HIV population has the higher risk. While a longer life span with medications may be one part, another theory is that many people (not all) who are infected with HIV live with higher risk factors in general by way of their lifestyle. This could impact the risk of cancer as well.
More study needs to be done, but researchers are interested in how this may play out, says a press release, Certain cancers more common among HIV patients than non-HIV patients.
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Image: StockXchng.com
