The title sounds a bit nonsensical. It might make sense that a virus that causes a suppressed immune system would allow opportunistic infections to occur. However, these are opportunistic infections- and cancer isn’t an infection! So how might this be possible?
The answer can be found in our cells. Specifically, our B cells, endothelial cells, and epithelial cells. When HIV-1 infects the body, CD4+ T cells are killed. These cells are imperative to a functioning immune system. Therefore in response to this, cells start producing loads of cytokines. (Cytokines are a broad group of proteins vital to cell signaling.) The release of these cytokines “wakes up” the B, endothelial, and epithelial cells, and they start proliferating. However, these three cells don’t know how to stop multiplying, so they just keep going. This nonstop proliferation can in turn lead to accumulation of mutations, perhaps due to errors that arose during cell division.
Some of these mutations can be ones that cause cancer. This explains why an HIV infection might cause cancer. Another reason can be oncogenic viruses. Oncogenic viruses are essentially viruses that cause cancer. The aforementioned nonstop cell proliferation can make it harder for these cells to destroy pathogens. Therefore these oncogenic viruses gain a pathway to the body- and the host now has cancer.
However, these two situations are rare. Yet this connection between these 2 completely different topics is certainly unexpected!
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