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 …read more

Farrah Fawcett has once again checked into the hospital for treatment. The actress has been battling anal cancer since 2006. She has been in the hospital for “at least two weeks” and is reportedly “not doing well.”

One source reveals that there “was a moment last week when she was supposed to be released and was going home but things changed.”Fawcett’s partner, actor Ryan O’Neal has been by her side and has asked her to marry him. She has accepted.
Image: Zuma Press

It has to be difficult to be in the public eye and then get sick. What’s even worse, is when you’re fighting for your life and the hospital you are being treated at sells your medical records to the tabloids. That’s what Farrah Fawcett says happened to her when her cancer came back. She didn’t tell anyone – not even her family or friends – and yet news of it was reported in the National Inquirer.

I wonder what happens to people who are approached by a tabloid for a large amount of money. Do they just …read more

Monday I mentioned that Farrah Fawcett had checked back into the hospital, but that her illness was described as having to do with a complication from her recent treatment in Germany, but that it wasn’t related to her cancer diagnosis. But new information has surfaced that suggests the situation is more serious than was first described.

Fawcett’s producer said the cancer had spread to her liver. This recent trip to Germany was for an experimental treatment. However, he insists that she is not “at death’s door.”
Image: Bauer-Griffin

HIV-positive men who are sexually active with other men are up to 90 times more likely to develop anal cancer than the general population.
Anal dysplasia or precancerous changes can be detected by anal cytology or the “anal canal pap smear”. This is a relatively new procedure and is not yet included in standard practice.
The UCLA CARE clinic is one of a few clinics in the United States offering an anal dysplasia screening and management service. Their new study demonstrated that abnormal anal cytology was highly predictive of anal cell abnormalities that were subsequently confirmed by anal biopsy.
Findings were reported in …read more