Women with HIV face higher rates of certain cancers: B.C. study

Researcher says HIV-positive women in treatment program are more likely to be diagnosed with invasive cervical cancer.

Woman living with HIV face elevated risk of certain cancers, a new British Columbia study has found.

By comparing databases of the B.C. Cancer Agency and the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS (BC-CfE), Simon Fraser University PhD student Kate Salters discovered that HIV-positive women were far more likely to be diagnosed with invasive cervical cancer, Hodgkin’s lympohoma, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and Kaposi’s sarcoma.

In the case of invasive cervical cancer, the diagnosis rate for women with HIV was 24 times higher than women who don’t have HIV, said SFU professor Robert Hogg, Salters’ supervisor on the study and a senior research scientist at the BC-CfE.

Hogg told Metro there were some common traits found among the diagnosed women that leads researchers to believe more effective treatment could cut down on rates.
For example, a significant portion of the women with HIV that were also diagnosed with cancer had lapses in their HIV treatment the year before.

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Canada Post has provided notification of restarting their operations on December 17, 2024. As Canada Post ramps up and stabilizes their services, the BC-CfE will continue the following measures on an interim basis to minimize service disruption to BC-CfE clients and providers.

  • The BC-CfE Laboratory will utilize private courier for delivery of outgoing reports and documents. (Lab Contact Information: Phone 604-806-8775; FAX 604-806-9463)
  • The BC-CfE Drug Treatment Program (DTP) will fax outgoing forms and documents to the provider’s office. (DTP Contact Information: Phone 604-806-8515; FAX 604-806-9044)
  • St. Paul’s Hospital Ambulatory Pharmacy will utilize private courier for delivery of medications. (Contact Information: Phone 1-800-547-3622; FAX 604-806-8675)

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