Aspirin may prevent cervical cancer in women with H.I.V.

Aspirin should be evaluated for its potential to prevent cervical cancer in women infected with H.I.V., say scientists who recently reported a connection between the virus and inflammation of cervical tissue. Their study, published last month in the journal Cancer Prevention Research, found that the virus that causes AIDS also drives up production of a prostaglandin called PGE2 in cervical tissue. PGE2 is linked to inflammation and the development of tumors. Aspirin is a powerful blocker of a chemical called COX-2 that allows prostaglandins to be formed. Therefore, the authors suggested that a large study be carried out to see if low-dose aspirin could prevent cervical cancer in women at high risk of getting it. Cervical cancer is caused by the human papillomavirus, and some scientists believe women co-infected with H.I.V. are up to five times as likely to see cervical papilloma lesions progress to cancer. Cervical cancer kills few women in rich countries, but it is a leading killer in poor ones where Pap smears are too expensive and vaccines against papillomaviruses are not yet available. The study was small — it compared tissue samples from 48 women, some of whom had only H.I.V., some of whom had both H.I.V. and papilloma infections and some of whom had neither. But the researchers, from NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center and institutions in Haiti and Qatar, found levels of PGE2 high enough to suggest that a larger study is needed to test whether giving low-dose aspirin to thousands of women would save lives.