{"id":630,"date":"2016-07-01T11:20:55","date_gmt":"2016-07-01T03:20:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shimclinic.com\/blog\/?p=630"},"modified":"2016-07-01T11:20:55","modified_gmt":"2016-07-01T03:20:55","slug":"cancer-increases-mortality-among-hiv-infected-patients","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shimclinic.com\/blog\/cancer-increases-mortality-among-hiv-infected-patients\/","title":{"rendered":"Cancer Increases Mortality among HIV-Infected Patients"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">HIV-positive patients\u00a0are at greater risk of developing concurrent cancer due to the weakening of their immune system. Cancer is in turn responsible for a rise in HIV-related morbidity and mortality. Various cancers can be\u00a0categorized as NADCs\u00a0non-AIDS-defining cancers or\u00a0ADCs (AIDS-defining cancers). <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">From a general point of view, risk factors for developing cancer among people living with <a title=\"HIV\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shimclinic.com\/singapore\/hiv\">HIV<\/a>\/AIDS (PLWHA) include:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Older age<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">low CD4 cell count or late stage of AIDS<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">cigarette smoking<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">co-infection with other viruses<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">alcohol consumption<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>HIV Moves from Fatal to Chronic<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">HIV\/AIDS has changed from being a fatal disease to a chronic one all over the world with the wide application of <a title=\"The World of Antiretrovirals\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shimclinic.com\/blog\/the-world-of-antiretrovirals\">antiretroviral therapy (ART)<\/a>. ART has also contributed to a shift in cancer patterns among PLWHA. According to research, the risk of ADCs has been decreasing among HIV\/AIDS patients since 1996. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Even so, the burden of NADCs among HIV\/AIDS patients is still on the rise. The causes of this rise according to some studies are alcohol consumption and drug abuse with other studies noting older age and lower CD4 counts to be responsible for the increasing mortality of NADCs. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">China launched a free nationwide ART program in 2004 and started to provide free ART medications to PLWHA and other related services. Subsequently, the number of deaths of Chinese AIDS patients went down in the following 10 years. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nonetheless, available information on cancers that are concurrent especially in\u00a0HIV\/AIDS patients living in China is very inadequate. Concurrent cancer identification was made difficult especially in rural China by late identification of HIV infections and under-resourced healthcare settings. Due to this, cancer concurrence prevalence among PLWHA was miscalculated.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Development and Spread of Cancer among HIV-Infected Patients<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jun Yang, Shu Su, Hongxin Zhao, Dennis Wang, Jiali Wang, Fujie Zhang and Yan Zhao carried out a\u00a0study in Beijing, China, with a focus on the development and spread of cancer in HIV-positive patients at Beijing Ditan Hospital. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The study was based on the theory that ART was protective against concurrent cancer and cancer-related mortality among HIV-infected patients. The researchers were looking\u00a0to study factors that are at a higher risk of causing concurrent cancer in\u00a0PLWHAs and those associated with deaths\u00a0among cancer suffering PLWHAs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The participants of the study were recruited from the Beijing Ditan Hospital. This was due to the fact that the facility is among largest hospitals that provide healthcare services to HIV-infected people in China not to mention its comprehensive, well-staffed and well-equipped status giving it professional reputation in the state. The hospital hence provided a mixed population of HIV-infected people from all over China making it suitable for the study.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The study involved\u00a0HIV-infected inpatients admitted at the hospital from January 2008 to December 2013 who\u00a0were older than 20 years. Patients were considered\u00a0to be part of the study starting from\u00a0the first time they were admitted to Beijing Ditan Hospital to the time they die or until the close of the study period in December 2013.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Information for each participant was collected from his\/her patient file from the hospital. Information about their demographics, current\u00a0health status, their CD4 count, ART\/survival position were also obtained from the national AIDS information system.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>High Death Rates\u00a0the Cancer-Concurrent Group<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A total of 1946 HIV-infected patients were included in the study during the study period. At the end of the study, it was\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">confirmed that indeed\u00a0alcohol consumption, drug abuse, older age and lower CD4 counts are\u00a0related factors for developing cancer among PLWHA.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Liver, Hodgkin\u2019s lymphoma, lung and gastrointestinal cancers, were found to be the most prevalent ADCs.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Patients without ART were at a higher probability of getting cancer than those who accepted the treatment.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Death rates in the cancer-concurrent group were higher and cancer free patients had lower mortality rates\u00a0observed post study\u00a0period compared to patients with any of the two types of cancer categories.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The researchers came to a conclusion that HIV-positive patients with cancer have a higher mortality rate than those without. The use of ART is, however, effective in lowering the risk of the patients developing cancer and also\u00a0reduces the danger of cancer-related deaths in PLWHA.<\/p>\n<h2>Our Take<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Clearly, early initiation of the use of ART among PLWHA is\u00a0an important step in reducing the risk of cancer development as well as death due to cancer. HIV-infected people should also be encouraged to frequently screen for cancer.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Visit Us<\/h2>\n<p>Shim Clinic believes prevention is better than cure and we provide a wide range of <a title=\"STD Testing\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shimclinic.com\/singapore\/std-testing\">STD testing<\/a> procedures and treatments. If you suspect that you have been recently been exposed to the HIV virus within the last 72 hours, do come in quickly for <a title=\"HIV PEP\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shimclinic.com\/singapore\/hiv-pep\">HIV PEP<\/a> treatment to prevent infection from setting in. A <a title=\"HIV Test\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shimclinic.com\/singapore\/hiv-test\">HIV Test<\/a> will be administered before the treatment to ensure no current infection.<\/p>\n<p>Source:<\/p>\n<p>Yang J, Su S, Zhao H, et al. Prevalence and mortality of cancer among HIV-infected inpatients in Beijing, China. <i>BMC Infectious Diseases<\/i>. 2016;16:82. doi:10.1186\/s12879-016-1416-3.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mortality rates are higher in HIV positive patients who also suffer from cancer. ARTs have however proven to be effects in reducing these mortality rates. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":713,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[70,19,20],"class_list":["post-630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-studies","tag-cancer","tag-hiv","tag-hivaids"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shimclinic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shimclinic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shimclinic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shimclinic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shimclinic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=630"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.shimclinic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":712,"href":"https:\/\/www.shimclinic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630\/revisions\/712"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shimclinic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shimclinic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shimclinic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shimclinic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}