HIV Patients at Heightened Risk for Certain Cancers Starting
drug therapy earlier might reduce that risk, study says TUESDAY,
Nov. 22 (HealthDay News) -- A weakened immune system and
unhealthy lifestyle habits such as smoking put HIV-infected
patients at increased risk for cancer, according to a new study.
The researchers also said that starting antiretroviral therapy
at an earlier stage of HIV infection might reduce cancer risk.
The primary goal of the study, one of the first to compare the
risk of cancer in HIV-infected patients, was to determine how
much of the increased risk was the result of the disease and how
much was due to other risk factors, such as smoking, the
researchers said. The study authors compared the rates of 10
types of cancer that occurred among HIV-infected patients and
HIV-free patients from Kaiser Permanente in Northern and
Southern California between 1996 and 2008. Six of the cancers
were more common in HIV patients than in HIV-free patients,
including Kaposi's sarcoma, non-Hodgkin's