TREAT Asia Cancer Research

February 2010—Limited data currently exist on cancer among HIV-positive patients in Asia. To improve their care and survival, researchers need a better understanding of the impact of antiretroviral therapy on cancer and the relationship between cancer and long-term immunosuppression.

Beginning in 2008, TREAT Asia launched a series of cancer studies funded by the US National Institutes of Health through the International Epidemiologic Databases to Evaluate AIDS (IeDEA), for which TREAT Asia serves as the Asia-Pacific representative. Components of this research plan include:

• Retrospective and prospective studies of cancer diagnoses in the TREAT Asia HIV Observational Database;

• Linkages between national cancer and HIV registries in Taiwan;

• Anal cancer screening and treatment among men who have sex with men (MSM) in Thailand;

• Think tank on pediatric cancers in HIV-positive children; and

• Symposium on cancer and HIV in Asia and the Pacific.