QOL worse if you are HIV+ too

[Tall_Allen]

I know Darryl has posted his study before, but I wanted to again acknowledge it.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi...

Rates of prostate cancer among men who are HIV+ are only about half that of other men:

academic.oup.com/jnci/artic...

This, in spite of the fact that men who are HIV+ are more likely to get checked up by their doctors.

[cesanon]

That's really interesting.

This is very counter intuitive as they all have depleted levels of T-cells. So they have weakened defenses against cancer cells.

Yes they are doing a better job of suppressing prostate cancer cells... or avoiding their occurrence.

May I assume this effect is only for prostate cancer? Or does it extend to any other cancers?

Any conjectures as to cause and effect?

[Tall_Allen in reply to cesanon]

Read it. There are also T cells (Tregs) that prohibit immune response. Maybe they have fewer of them.

[Handdrummer777]

That is a strange finding, Tall_Allen. Just like tobacco seems to suppress some cancers, but obviously fails the test with lung cancer.

[Tall_Allen in reply to Handdrummer777]

What is strange is the immune system

[Handdrummer777]

You will likely forget more than I'll ever know about the immune system.

[greatjohn]

very interesting and counterintuitive. I had read this before but I wasn't sure of where the statistics had come from. It seems as though something could be learned from this about how the immune system and t-cells actually work in the body.

John