Do hIV-positive patients with anal carcinoma have poorer treatment tolerance and outcome than HIV-negative patients?
We found that HIV-positive patients with anal carcinoma seem to be a different population from HIV-negative patients by age, gender, and sexual orientation. They have a poorer tolerance for combined therapy and a shorter time to cancer-related death. A strong trend to poorer initial response rate was also seen. These results suggest that the treatment of HIV-positive patients with anal carcinoma needs to be reassessed.
Taken together, our data suggest that CsA acts as an antinatriuretic, likely by the inhibition of COX-2-mediated renal prostanoid formation. Since the furosemide-induced stimulation of the renin system is not attenuated by CsA but by COX-2 inhibition, we speculate that extrarenal COX-2-derived prostanoids may be involved in the stimulation of the renin system by CsA and by loop diuretics.