HPV-Associated Cancers More Frequent in Individuals With HIV/AIDS
Human papillomavirus-associated cancers occur more frequently
in individuals with HIV/AIDS, with non-invasive cancers
associated with immunosuppression, according to a new study by
researchers at the Statens Serum Institute in Denmark,
Cancer Weekly reports. Through a study of 309,365
participants with HIV/AIDS, researchers found that "overall risks
for in situ (non-invasive) [HPV-associated] cancers were
increased" for cervical, vulvar/vaginal and anal cancers in
women, and anal and penile cancers in men. "HPV-associated
anogenital malignancies occur frequently in patients with HIV
infection and AIDS. The purpose of our study was to determine if
the high frequency of these cancers is due to lifestyle factors
associated with both HPV and HIV infections or to
immunosuppression following HIV infection," researcher M. Frisch
said. The scientists used sex-, race- and age-standardized
ratios of observed-to-expected cancers rates as measures of
relative risk, and used "trend tests" to track changes in the
relative risk from five years before the date of AIDS onset to
five years after. They found that the relative risks for
invasive cancers "were not much affected in the 10 years spanning
AIDS onset," and stated that the "increasing relative risks for
in situ cancers to and beyond the time of AIDS onset may be
related to the gradual loss of control over HPV-infected
keratinocytes (epidermal cells that make up 95% of the epidermis)
with advancing immunosuppression," Cancer Weekly
reports. "However, the lack of a similar increase for invasive
HPV-associated cancers suggests that late-stage cancer invasion
is not greatly influenced by immune status," Frisch and his team
concluded. The report first appeared in the September 2000 issue
of
Journal of the National Cancer Institute
(Cancer Weekly, 11/14).
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