People with HIV face higher rate of cancer

For reasons not yet clear, people with HIV face a higher rate of cancers not usually associated with HIV, a new study suggests.

This increasing rate of “non-AIDS defining cancers” includes lung, head and neck, liver, kidney, and anal cancers, among others, according to the study appearing on the website of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) on Monday. The alarming uptick in cancer rates highlights the critical need to understand how to treat tumors in people taking highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART) for HIV, the study noted.

Lead author of the study, John Deeken, said the early results of the AIDS-related study have the potential to change the way that cancer is treated in HIV patients.