Cancer risk among HIV-positive decreasing, experts report

The risk of developing non-Aids-defining cancers among people with HIV has decreased since the introduction of antiretroviral treatment (ART).

This is according to research presented at the 16th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Montreal, which also found that the risk of the same group of cancers among people without HIV has remained steady since 1996.

However, the report suggests that despite the declining trend there is still a six-fold greater chance of developing a non-Aids-defining cancer if the patient is infected with HIV than if they are not.

The study, conducted over several years by a group of Kaiser Permanente hospitals across the US, examined the health of nearly 19,000 HIV-positive people.

The report concluded: "HIV–positive persons have an elevated risk of non-Aids-defining cancers, particularly infection-related which comprised almost half of all the non-AIDS-defining cancers in this population.

"The increased risk of non-Aids-defining cancers in HIV-positive persons has not changed much during the ART era."

However, it remains unclear whether ART is itself responsible for the overall decline in these types of cancer cases.