AIDS-related Cancers
AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome) is probably the most frightening disease of the century. And there are plenty of reasons for that. Too many people have AIDS and, for now, there is no cure for them. The world is facing, in the last 20 years with the biggest epidemic ever.
The worst thing about this disease is the fact it is destroying your defense against another fatal diseases. People with AIDS may be more susceptible to develop certain types of cancer because their body’s natural defenses have been weakened. The more and more improving antiretroviral therapy significantly reduced the number of people who develop AIDS-related cancers. However, many HIV positive individuals will develop cancers during the course of their illness (Recent estimates as high as 30-70%).
The most common form of AIDS-related cancer, Kaposi’s sarcoma, was one of the first indications of the AIDS epidemic in the early 1980s. Until then, Kaposi’s sarcoma was a rare cancer of the skin, diagnosed mostly in Equatorial Africa. Also very common in HIV positive patients are lymphoma (especially non-Hodgkin lymphoma and primary central nervous system lymphoma), and invasive squamous cell cancer of cervix and anus.
Other forms of cancer that may be more likely to develop in people with HIV infection are Hodgkin disease, cancer of the mouth, cancer of the testicles, and skin cancers, including basal cell, squamous cell, and even malignant melanomas. The relationship between HIV infection and these cancers is not fully understood. However, it is believed cancers can grow rapidly because people with HIV have weakened immune systems.
Unfortunately, cancer in people with HIV/AIDS is more difficult to treat. This is because of the decreased immune function caused by HIV and the decrease in the white blood cell count that results from HIV infection. Probably, in the next years, as the treatments for AIDS and for cancer as well are improving, people with AIDS will develop less frequent AIDS related cancers.
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