According to a new study, cases of AIDS-related cancers have decreased among people suffering from HIV in the United States. However, the same study finds that other types of cancer are growing in this same group.
In particular, Kaposi’s sarcoma, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and invasive cervical cancer are used by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention when attempting to figure out if a person with HIV has developed AIDS.
As per the results of this study, AIDS-defining cancers decreased from 34,000 cases between 1991 and 1995 to nearly 10,000 cases between 2001 and 2005. This notable decline has been attributed to the introduction of a highly active antiretroviral therapy in 1996, which in turn improves immune function all the while reducing the progression of AIDS.
Unfortunately, the study also found that the total number all other types of cancers in people with HIV tripled from 3,000 cases between 1991 and 1995 to nearly 10,000 cases between 2001 and 2005.
"Our study observed striking increases for a number of malignancies related to cancer risk factors that are known to be prevalent in this population, such as smoking and infection with cancer-causing viruses," study author Meredith S. Shiels, from the division of cancer epidemiology and genetics at the National Cancer Institute, said in a journal news release. "We also observed increases for nearly all other cancers, which is what one might expect for an aging population."
This study was published online on April 11 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
