Reports based on a press release in October suggested it, but now the full data tell the story: Early monitoring and treatment of anal high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (HSIL) cut risk for anal cancer by 57% in people living with HIV.
"We now show, for the first time, that treatment of anal HSIL is effective in reducing the incidence of anal cancer," said Joel Palefsky, MD, lead investigator of the Anal Cancer/HSIL Outcomes Research (ANCHOR) study and founder/director of the University of California, San Francisco's, Anal Neoplasia Clinic. "These data should be included in an overall assessment for inclusion of screening for and treating HSIL as standard of care in people living with HIV."
Palefsky presented the full results in a special session at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) 2022 Annual Meeting, which drew excitement, gratitude, and relief from both researchers and clinicians, who flocked to the session.
But it's not just people with HIV who will benefit from this research. Palefsky suggested that the findings should also be considered as guides for other people at high-risk for anal cancer, such as people who are immunocompromised for other reasons, including those with lupus, ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease
