Anal Cancers in Previously Screened Versus Unscreened Patients: Tumor Stage and Treatment Outcomes.

Background: Targeted screening programs for patients at high risk for anal squamous-cell carcinoma have been proposed; however, the evidence in support of screening remains unclear.

Objective: This study aimed to determine whether screening high-risk patients (predominantly those living with HIV) detected squamous-cell carcinoma at an earlier stage compared to the routine practice of not screening.

Design: This is a cohort study.

Influence of previous experience with and beliefs regarding anal cancer screening on willingness to be screened among men living with HIV.

Background: Implementation of anal cancer screening requires the procedure to be acceptable to the target population. Our objective was to assess the beliefs of men living with HIV regarding anal cancer screening and identify factors associated with their willingness to participate in screening.

Methods: We developed a cross-sectional questionnaire using the Theory of Planned Behavior to examine beliefs regarding prevention of human papillomavirus (HPV)-related diseases, administered to men living with HIV in 2016-2017 in a multi-site HIV clinical cohort.

Low-Level Anorectal HIV Shedding despite Effective Antiretroviral Therapy Is Not Driven by Mucosal Inflammation.

Although antiretroviral treatment (ART) suppresses HIV RNA in blood and prevents transmission, low-level anorectal HIV RNA shedding persists in some ART-treated men who have sex with men. We collected anorectal biopsies and swabs from 55 men who have sex with men on effective ART, hypothesizing that anorectal shedding would be linked to microbiota-driven mucosal T cell activation. Lymphocytes were assessed by flow cytometry, soluble immune factors by multiplex immunoassay, neutrophils and epithelial integrity by immunofluorescence microscopy, and the anorectal microbiome by quantitative PCR and 16S rRNA gene sequencing.