Cervical cancer in women living with HIV: a review of the literature

Abstract

The introduction of ART had a significant impact on PWLH survival. The incidence of AIDS-defining cancers has decreased, but the risk is still higher than general population. Women living with HIV have a high prevalence of HPV infection and related disease, including cervical cancer. HIV-related risk factors, such as immunodeficiency and chronic persistence of infection play an important role in its pathogenesis. HPV vaccine, screening and early antiretroviral therapies, are recommended to reduce the risk of developing cervical cancer. In this review, we considered the studies published about cervical cancer in PLWHA that we found performing a research on PUBMED (Bethesda MD, USA) with the following research terms “Papillomavirus”, “Cervical Cancer”, “HIV infection”, “Screening”, “Vaccination” with the aim to point out the main aspects of cervical cancer in HIV infected women, its management and prophylaxis.

Keywords

• cervical cancer
• human immunodeficiency virus (hiv)
• human papilloma virus (hpv)
• screening
• vaccination