Physical Wellness

People With HIV Are Less Likely To Get Needed Cancer Treatment

By Brian McNeill | Update Date: May 21, 2016 06:40 AM EDT

The perils of contracting HIV are obvious but a new study may have just revealed the complications that will arise should the same person eventually end up getting cancer.

While this bit is something that could dishearten the folks of people looking forward to addressing HIV issues, the fact is that contract it in the first place already carried risks. But such may not hold true for future illnesses and cancer, as we all know it, is pretty much one of them.

Researchers studied a variety of cancer issues that include upper gastrointestinal tract, colorectal, prostate, lung, head and neck, cervix, breast, anal and two blood cancers on HIV and non-affected people. The amount of treatment required on the two classes varied as shown in the study which can be seen at the journal Cancer.

The study included 10,265 HIV-infected adults and 2.2 million without HIV.

"To have made such great strides with treating HIV only to have them succumb to cancer is devastating," said Dr. Gita Suneja, a radiation oncologist at the University of Utah's Huntsman Cancer Institute in Salt Lake City and the lead author of the study.

In an effort to address people with HIV and reduce the incidence of cancer, antiretroviral therapy was done. Kaposi sarcoma was one type of cancer closely linked to AIDS and the therapy has somehow reduced the incidence of cancer. The numbers however differ when the age factor sets in.

Apparently everyone knows that varying ways to address the “Big C” and complications persist. It would be safe to say that with HIV-related problems, it gets worse though the cancers mentioned above do not include anal cancer.

With that in mind, another problem could arise for people with HIV. This matter has to do with insurance where the people concerned may not be amply covered.

"We know that people with Medicaid or who are uninsured receive subpar cancer treatment, and that's a big public health issue," explains Dr. Suneja. "But even factoring that in, HIV-infected people are still less likely to receive cancer treatment. That means there are other drivers that we couldn't measure in the study."

The findings are hardly comforting and give HIV-infected people something to cheer about. With that looming together with heavy money spending to address such, the best way for now is for folks to be more careful to avoid these illnesses.

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