HIV Cervical Cancer
Published on Jun 12 2010, in the categories: HIV, cervical cancer
Cervical cancer has been a very controversial subject and will continue to be for a long time coming. Reasons for this include the fact that many people relate it to STD, the fact that smoking plays a part in its development, the vaccine for young girls and the fact that is is so easy to prevent but it continues to be the second cancer cause leading to death in women. In some developing countries cervical cancer is even accounted for the highest number of deaths in women.
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The association of cervical cancer and STD is a delicate subject and with great potential harm for the way the disease is perceived since stigmatization is present even today. HPV is indeed a sexually transmitted virus which can be found in 90% of cervical cancer cases but this doesn't make cervical cancer a sexually transmitted disease. Only 2 strains of this virus can actually lead to warts and precancerous conditions that if left untreated can lead to cervical cancer. The association with HIV infections is even a more complex issue and though it has long been a subject of intense debate medics have mostly come to agree that HIV is indeed a major risk factor for developing cervical cancer as an increased risk of pre-invasive cervical conditions has been reported among HIV positive women. These lesions are however 100% treatable. Studies also show no significantly higher incidence of invasive cervical cancer linked to the HIV epidemic.
Starting with 1993, cervical cancer has been characterized as an AIDS-defining disease and in the beginning many doctors were convinced that HIV infections had nothing to do with cervical cancer and that HIV positive women didn't risk more to develop cervical cancer than women not infected with the virus. By now however, they've all probably changed their minds in front of clear evidence that point out to a small increase in the risk of developing cervical cancer in HIV positive women. This has been the case also with the progress made in HIV treatments, especially in developing countries, where you didn't really have time to see if cervical cancer will follow HIV, because life expectancy didn't really allow it.
Attention has also been brought to the impact of anti-HIV drugs that some speculated to lead to cervical cancer but this is just a potential myth and it isn't based on any valid information that even remotely points to it. Also, anti-HIV drugs aren't anti-HPV drugs though they do improve the immune system and its ability to fight against infections like HPV.
Another thing we should know is that this relation between HIV and cervical cancer is even more complicated as we go on with our observations. One of the other conclusions of most studies comparing HIV positive women with cervical cancer and HIV negative women with cervical cancer was also that women who are infected with HIV have the tendency to live longer.
<-336x280 Large Rectangle - center->
The association of cervical cancer and STD is a delicate subject and with great potential harm for the way the disease is perceived since stigmatization is present even today. HPV is indeed a sexually transmitted virus which can be found in 90% of cervical cancer cases but this doesn't make cervical cancer a sexually transmitted disease. Only 2 strains of this virus can actually lead to warts and precancerous conditions that if left untreated can lead to cervical cancer. The association with HIV infections is even a more complex issue and though it has long been a subject of intense debate medics have mostly come to agree that HIV is indeed a major risk factor for developing cervical cancer as an increased risk of pre-invasive cervical conditions has been reported among HIV positive women. These lesions are however 100% treatable. Studies also show no significantly higher incidence of invasive cervical cancer linked to the HIV epidemic.
Starting with 1993, cervical cancer has been characterized as an AIDS-defining disease and in the beginning many doctors were convinced that HIV infections had nothing to do with cervical cancer and that HIV positive women didn't risk more to develop cervical cancer than women not infected with the virus. By now however, they've all probably changed their minds in front of clear evidence that point out to a small increase in the risk of developing cervical cancer in HIV positive women. This has been the case also with the progress made in HIV treatments, especially in developing countries, where you didn't really have time to see if cervical cancer will follow HIV, because life expectancy didn't really allow it.
Attention has also been brought to the impact of anti-HIV drugs that some speculated to lead to cervical cancer but this is just a potential myth and it isn't based on any valid information that even remotely points to it. Also, anti-HIV drugs aren't anti-HPV drugs though they do improve the immune system and its ability to fight against infections like HPV.
Another thing we should know is that this relation between HIV and cervical cancer is even more complicated as we go on with our observations. One of the other conclusions of most studies comparing HIV positive women with cervical cancer and HIV negative women with cervical cancer was also that women who are infected with HIV have the tendency to live longer.