HIV-infected people with early-stage cancers are up to four times more likely to go untreated for cancer

HIV-infected people diagnosed with cancer are two to four times more likely to go untreated for their cancer compared to uninfected cancer patients, according to a new, large retrospective study from researchers in Penn Medicine’s Abramson Cancer Center and the National Cancer Institute. “In my clinical experience, I have seen uncertainty surrounding treatment of HIV-infected cancer patients,” said the study’s lead author, Gita Suneja, MD, an adjunct assistant professor in the department of Radiation Oncology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and in the Abramson Cancer Center . “Patients with HIV have typically been excluded from clinical trials, and therefore oncologists do not know if the best available treatments are equally safe and effective in those with HIV.” Read more here.