HIV infection significantly decreases survival among women with invasive cervical cancer, according to a study conducted in Botswana. This was the case even though most women with HIV received antiretroviral therapy. “Cervical cancer is the most common cause of cancer death among African women, and the HIV epidemic intensifies this burden,” wrote study authors led by Scott Dryden-Peterson, MD, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. The use of antiretroviral therapy for HIV can reduce the frequency and duration of the HPV strains that can cause cervical cancer, but incidence of the malignancy has not decreased since HIV treatment expanded. The impact of HIV on survival from cervical cancer has not been well studied before. Read full article here.