Smoking causes one in five cancers in people with HIV in North America

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aidsmap/nam, 22 January 2018

A fifth of all cancers in people receiving HIV care in North America between 2000 and 2015 was due to smoking, according to US research published this month in advance online by the journal AIDS.

“In the United States, the prevalence of smoking among HIV-infected people is substantially higher than in the general population, and most HIV-infected individuals either currently smoke or have previously smoked,” comment the authors. “Our findings indicated that a substantial fraction of cancer diagnoses among HIV-infected individuals potentially would not have occurred if they had never smoked.”

Thanks to improvements in HIV treatment and care, most people with HIV now have a normal or near-normal life expectancy. As these people age, non-AIDS-related cancers are an important cause of death.

By J Pope

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