Tobacco.org

• CROI: Smoking increases cancer-associated HPV viral load 

Smoking increases the rate of viral reproduction in gay men who have anal infections with cancer-causing variants of the human papilloma virus (HPV), a German study has found.

The association between smoking and viral load was particularly strong in men who had not yet developed precancerous changes (dysplasia) in the anal or rectal epithelium (skin or mucosa), suggesting that smoking may possibly speed the development of so-called squamous cell intraepithelial lesions (SIL). High HPV viral loads have previously been shown to be associated with an increased risk of anal cancer. . . .

Reference Brockmeyer N et al. Elevated anal HPV16 DNA loads in HIV+ men who smoke. Fourteenth Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, Los Angeles, abstract 872, 2007.

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