A cancer diagnosis is a difficult pill to swallow no matter what your health looks like, but for people who are living with HIV, it can be especially dangerous. Why is cancer treatment different for people who are HIV-positive, and what steps can be taken to make treatment for this dangerous disease easier for HIV-positive patients?
A Difficult Prognosis
Cancer is usually treated using one of three methods: Surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy. The latter two options have the potential to weaken the immune system, leaving patience susceptible to additional infections.
In patients who are HIV-positive — where the immune system is already compromised — cancer cells can often grow and multiply much faster than in a healthy individual. This doesn't mean the cancer can’t be treated — it just shortens the treatment timeline.
For individuals who are being treated by anti-HIV medication, treatment for cancer should be similar to the kind of treatment that is used for healthy individuals, though the cancer medications might need to be modified to prevent any medication interactions.
Treatment Is (Un)Available
Early diagnosis of cancer can mean the difference between a favorable prognosis and a poor one. Depending on the type of cancer, early detection can increase survivability to 70-90%.
Why is it, then, that men and women who are HIV-positive are up to four times more likely to allow their cancer to progress untreated, if these treatments could potentially save or prolong their lives?
One study found that oncologists might actually elect not to treat a patient with HIV because of the lack of information surrounding HIV-positive cancer patients. Historically, HIV was cause for excluding an individual from the clinical trials that create oncological treatment guidelines in the first place, so these medical professionals might not even know how to treat an HIV-positive patient.
Alternatives Exist
HIV/AIDS is one of the most commonly listed conditions that qualify a patient for a medical marijuana prescription in states where such a program is in place. Even in states where medical cannabis isn’t yet legal, one in three HIV patients use the drug to treat everything from nausea and appetite loss to cachexia.
It’s also been utilized successfully by cancer patients to counter some of the harsher side-effects of chemotherapy. Instead of taking a different medication for each side-effect, cannabis offers a broad-spectrum solution that hasn’t yet been duplicated in the opiate-riddled pharmaceutical industry.
Medical marijuana has been found to be a useful tool in treating the symptoms associated with both HIV and cancer. Claims that marijuana or cannabis extracts “cure” cancer are currently still anecdotal, however, and haven’t been studied enough for us to make a definitive claim.
What we do know right now is that medical marijuana can take a difficult diagnosis and make it far easier to bear. While it can be difficult to tell exactly how many people who are HIV-positive are relying on marijuana to alleviate their symptoms, the fact remains that it might be one of the best tools around to accompany cancer treatments.