![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cfar\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1380\/2025\/07\/Group-Photo-Screening-Gap.png-copy-283x300.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
As people living with HIV (PLWH) benefit from longer life expectancy due to antiretroviral therapy, a new threat is emerging\u2014<\/span>lung cancer<\/span>\u00a0is now one of the leading causes of death in this population. The reasons are complex: PLWH are twice as likely to smoke, face higher cancer risk at younger ages, and experience immunosuppression and chronic inflammation that compound risk.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Addressing a Silent Crisis<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Dr. Subhashini Sellers, MD, MSCR, assistant professor in pulmonary critical care at UNC, led a study supported by a CFAR Developmental Award examining\u00a0lung cancer screening eligibility and uptake\u00a0among PLWH at UNC Health. She presented the findings at a recent UNC Friday Conference.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Screening Saves Lives\u2014But Access Falls Short<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The\u00a0U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF)\u00a0recommends lung cancer screening using low-dose CT scans for adults aged 50\u201380 with a significant smoking history. In 2021, these criteria expanded to include individuals with at least a 20-pack-year smoking history. Yet\u00a0PLWH were not considered\u00a0in the original models or guidelines.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Currently,\u00a0only 3\u20135%\u00a0of eligible individuals in the general population are being screened\u2014and among PLWH, adherence is even lower.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Key Findings from UNC Health<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Dr. Sellers\u2019s team reviewed health data from\u00a07,000 PLWH receiving care at UNC Health, analyzing demographics, HIV markers, substance use history, and lung cancer screening data from 2014\u20132023. Key findings included:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n What\u2019s Next?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Future analysis will examine\u00a0adherence patterns, such as the time from eligibility to first CT scan and annual follow-ups. The research aims to inform\u00a0tailored interventions\u00a0for PLWH, including:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n A Life Saved<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Dr. David Margolis, the CFAR Co-Director, shared<\/span> a powerful story: one of his HIV patients was identified for screening, underwent a CT scan, and was diagnosed with early-stage lung cancer. The patient received life-saving surgery. To read more about Dr. Sellers\u2019s study on UNC’s Institute for Global Health’s website click here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As people living with HIV (PLWH) benefit from longer life expectancy due to antiretroviral therapy, a new threat is emerging\u2014lung cancer\u00a0is now one of the leading causes of death in this population. The reasons are complex: PLWH are twice as likely to smoke, face higher cancer risk at younger ages, and experience immunosuppression and chronic … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":120087,"featured_media":18565,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"layout":"","cellInformation":"","apiCallInformation":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","odd"],"acf":[],"featured_image":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cfar\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1380\/2025\/07\/3087x3859-scaled.jpg","featured_image_medium":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cfar\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1380\/2025\/07\/3087x3859-240x300.jpg","featured_image_medium_large":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cfar\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1380\/2025\/07\/3087x3859-768x960.jpg","featured_image_large":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cfar\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1380\/2025\/07\/3087x3859-819x1024.jpg","featured_image_thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cfar\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1380\/2025\/07\/3087x3859-150x150.jpg","featured_image_alt":"","category_details":[{"name":"News","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cfar\/category\/news\/"}],"tag_details":[],"_links_to":[],"_links_to_target":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cfar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cfar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cfar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cfar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/120087"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cfar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18562"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cfar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18571,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cfar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18562\/revisions\/18571"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cfar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cfar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cfar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/cfar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n