Stephen E. Hawes, Ph.D., of the University of Washington in Seattle, and colleagues studied a cohort of 627 women with and without HIV types 1 and/or 2 and/or high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) infection in Senegal, West Africa. They followed the women for a mean of 2.2 years with evaluations every 4 months.

They found that women infected with both HIV and a high-risk HPV type were at greatest risk of developing a cervical cancer precursor called HSIL. HIV-positive women with low CD4 cell counts and high plasma HIV RNA levels were at increased risk of HSIL. The authors conclude that an increased risk of developing HSIL among HIV-infected women is primarily associated with increased HPV persistence that may be related to immunosuppression induced by HIV infection.

Contact: Clare Hagerty, 206-685-1323, clareh@u.washington.edu

Sex Hormones Not a Useful Predictor of Breast Cancer Risk
Sex hormone levels in the blood are not associated with the risk of developing breast cancer in postmenopausal women who are in high-risk groups, according to a new study.

Several studies have suggested that increased levels of the sex hormones estradiol and testosterone and decreased levels of a protein that binds to sex hormones called sex hormone-binding globulin are associated with an increased risk of breast cancer in postmenopausal women. Although tamoxifen is commonly used to treat breast cancer in postmenopausal women, one study suggested that raloxifene, a selective estrogen receptor modulator (SERM), was associated with a larger reduction in breast cancer risk among women with high levels of estradiol. <
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Contact: Ariel Whitworth
jncimedia@oxfordjournals.org
301-841-1287
Journal of the National Cancer Institute
17-Jan-2006