Why are individuals with HIV more susceptible to certain types of cancer?

Sure, no problem. A lot of people find this confusing, and I'll do my best to explain it in an easy-to-understand way.

Why Are People With HIV More Prone to Certain Cancers?

Think of your body's immune system like a country's "defense force + police system." This army has two main jobs:

Defend against external enemies: Things like bacteria and viruses – troublemakers from outside.
Eliminate internal renegades: When our body cells divide, they sometimes make mistakes and produce abnormal "renegade cells." These are the seeds of cancer. The immune system acts like police, constantly patrolling the body. When it finds these "renegades," it eliminates them immediately, stopping them from growing into a "gang" (that is, a tumor).

Within the immune system, the "elite force" or "SWAT commander" is a type of cell called CD4 T-lymphocytes. They are responsible for directing the entire immune system's response.

So, what bad things does the HIV virus do?

The HIV virus is very cunning. Unlike ordinary viruses that attack regular body cells, it specifically targets our "elite force" – CD4 cells.

The HIV virus invades CD4 cells and turns them into factories for copying itself.
Eventually, this infected CD4 cell is destroyed, releasing more HIV viruses to attack the next CD4 cell.

The result is that our immune system's "SWAT commanders" become fewer and fewer. Eventually, the whole "defense and police system" loses its leadership, becoming both weakened and chaotic.

When the immune system collapses, cancer sees its opportunity

Once this "police system" is essentially paralyzed, two main things happen that significantly increase the risk of cancer:

1. "Internal renegades" are left unchecked

As mentioned earlier, cancerous cells occasionally arise even in a normal body. However, a healthy immune system can detect and eliminate them promptly.

For people living with HIV, the drastically reduced number of "police" significantly weakens patrol capabilities. Those scattered "renegade cells" are much harder to find. They can quietly grow and multiply, eventually forming tumors.

2. "Dormant viruses" seize the chance to cause trouble (This is key!)

This point explains why the cancers associated with HIV are almost always specific types.

Many of us already harbor certain viruses in our bodies. With a strong immune system, these viruses are kept tightly suppressed and "dormant," unable to cause problems. Examples include:

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV): Many people are infected, often causing only mild cold-like symptoms.
Human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8): Also known as Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV).
Human papillomavirus (HPV): Well-known as the main cause of cervical cancer.

When HIV destroys the immune system, these dormant viruses essentially see that the "police station has been blown up" and immediately jump into action. And these viruses themselves are carcinogenic.

When HHV-8 virus becomes active, it causes Kaposi's Sarcoma. This is a vascular tumor characterized by purple patches on the skin and mucous membranes. It's the most characteristic AIDS-related cancer.
When EBV becomes active, it can lead to Lymphoma because lymphocytes are a core part of the immune system. The virus disrupting them can cause healthy lymphocytes to become cancerous.
For female HIV-positive individuals co-infected with HPV, the body's inability to clear HPV significantly increases the risk of Cervical Cancer compared to women without HIV.

Therefore, these cancers are called "opportunistic malignancies" – they seize the "opportunity" provided by the collapse of the immune system to develop.

To summarize

Simply put:

The HIV virus destroys the immune system's command center (CD4 cells) -> The immune system collapses -> The body loses its ability to monitor and eliminate cancer cells, AND latent cancer-related viruses seize the chance to cause havoc -> This leads to a significant increase in the incidence of specific types of cancer (like Kaposi Sarcoma, Lymphoma, Cervical Cancer).

The good news is that modern medicine has developed effective antiretroviral therapy (commonly called "cocktail therapy"). This treatment powerfully suppresses HIV replication in the body, allowing the immune system to rebuild. As immune function recovers, the incidence of these opportunistic cancers also drops dramatically.