This World AIDS Day, the Forum of International Respiratory Societies (FIRS), of which the American Thoracic Society is a founding member, is calling on the healthcare community to increase lung cancer screening for people with HIV who are current or former heavy smokers and may be at high risk for developing the disease.
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among those with HIV/AIDS worldwide, and HIV-positive patients who smoke die at a significantly younger age than those who do not. Studies show that lung cancer occurs more often among people living with HIV than among the general population.
Some geographic regions are especially hard hit by both HIV and lung cancer. Sub-Saharan Africa is home to approximately half of the world’s HIV-positive population—20 million in all. These individuals have three times the incidence of lung cancer of people without HIV. Several sub-Saharan regions have seen increases in the incidence of lung cancer in the last several years. However, the need stands in great contrast to the limited resources and access to care in these regions. It is, therefore, critical that governments and health systems prioritize greater access and ongoing awareness campaigns in order to see improvements in lung cancer care.
People living with HIV have a higher risk of lung cancer than the general population. However, many people with this malignancy do not have symptoms at early stages. Lung cancer is the leading cause of death from cancer, worldwide, accounting for 1.8 million deaths in 2020.
Some research suggests that young (under age 55) people with HIV who are current or former heavy smokers may benefit from screening at an earlier age.
In general, HIV infected individuals lose more years of their lives from smoking than they do from HIV. A large Danish study found that HIV infected participants lost a median of 12 years of life from smoking, while the median years lost to HIV in nonsmokers was 5.1.
American Thoracic Society release
