DCEG Hosts HIV and Cancer Workshop
, by DCEG Staff
Meredith Shiels and Eric Engels
In April 2016, DCEG hosted a one-day workshop on HIV and cancer. The goals of the meeting were to identify scientific questions and hypotheses related to HIV and cancer, discuss approaches for addressing these knowledge gaps, and encourage collaboration.
People with HIV are known to have elevated risks of certain cancers, particularly those caused by other infectious agents. In the current treatment era, people with HIV are living to older ages, creating a need for additional research on cancer risk related to aging with HIV, effective cancer screening, and long-term risks and benefits of medications.
The workshop included four sessions that focused on major outstanding questions related to HIV and cancer: 1) lung cancer etiology and screening, 2) unexplained deficits in prostate and breast cancer, 3) HIV and aging, and 4) HIV medications, carcinogenicity, and chemoprevention. These discussions generated ideas for future studies and identified opportunities for collaboration across areas of expertise and disciplines.
The meeting was organized by Meredith Shiels, Ph.D., and Eric A. Engels, M.D., M.P.H. Workshop participants included investigators from DCEG as well as NCI’s Office of HIV and AIDS Malignancy, Center for Cancer Research, and Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences.