New research from UF suggests proper treatment for early stages of anal cancer can lead to an 80 percent decrease in mortality risk in gay and bisexual men.
Ashish Deshmukh, an assistant professor in the UF Department of Health Services Research, Management and Policy, said anal cancer is caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV) infection. If the infection goes undetected or untreated, it may lead to anal cancer. He said about one out of two men in the general population has HPV.
The disease is also correlated with HIV, Deshmukh said. According to the study, almost 620,000 gay and bisexual men in the U.S. were living with HIV in 2014, and 100,000 of these men were not aware of their infection. These men are 100 times more likely to have anal cancer than HIV-negative men who only have sex with women.
For the study, UF researchers used a mathematical model to simulate the life course of 100,000 hypothetical HIV-positive men who have sex with men, 27 years or older, with precancerous cells present.
Researchers found that HIV-infected gay and bisexual men who are 38 years or older should be surgically treated and given an HPV vaccination once they’re aware of their disease. This can decrease the lifetime risk of anal cancer up to 80 percent in those men.
“Due to the absence of any prevention guidelines, a majority of anal cancer cases are diagnosed at stage III or worse, when 5-year survival is less than 50 percent,” Deshmukh said.
Deshmukh said anal cancer is dominant in all states but especially among southern states where prevalence of HIV is high.
Sydney Britt, a 20-year-old UF international studies junior, said it’s important for students to know about anal cancer because there is a stigma surrounding people who are HIV positive.
“Learning about the disease will hopefully give students more understanding,” she said. “Hopefully more understanding will help people feel open to speaking up about their experiences and not feel silenced by the stigma.”
