HIV/AIDS and kidney transplant patients are at a much greater risk of developing 20 different types of cancer than the general population, according to research led by Professor Andrew Grulich from the University of New South Wales' National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research (NCHECR) and published in The Lancet.The research suggests that immune deficiency, which is common to the two types of patients, is responsible for this increased risk of cancer.
HIV/AIDS and kidney transplant patients are more likely to develop Hodgkin's lymphoma, which is associated with the Epstein Barr virus and a number of cancers associated with the human papilloma virus. According to the researchers, for other cancers which are not linked with viruses such as breast and prostate, the HIV/AIDS patients and kidney tranplant patients had rates similar to the general population.
