Why People with HIV Have Higher Cancer Risk

A new study shows how tiny intercellular bubbles may play a big role in altering the growth and spread of cancer in people who are HIV positive.

Researchers with the Case Western Reserve University’s School of Dental Medicine studied 18 HIV-positive people with head and neck cancer, and found that exosomes or nanocarriers that transfer DNA, RNA, and proteins to cells, also promote cancer cells.

As a result, this new research may show why cancer grows faster and more aggressively in patients with HIV, said Ge Jin, PhD, associate professor of biological sciences at the School of Dental Medicine and the study’s author and principal investigator.

“The cells in question release exosomes into the bloodstream — think small nanoparticles — that don’t cause cancer, but they support it,” Jin said. “There are big implications here.”

“They assist in a way we hadn’t — until now — been able to understand,” Jin added.

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