That delay “revealed missed opportunities for a better experience on the patient, clinic, and provider level,” Jessica Wells, PhD, research assistant professor at the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing at Emory University, Atlanta, said in an interview. After all, “a lot can happen in that 1 year,” including early development of human papillomavirus (HPV)–associated anal cancer.
Although it’s too soon to say how significant that delay is with respect to the natural history of anal cancer, Dr. Wells said the data are a potential signal of disparities.
“The findings from my study may foreshadow potential disparities if we don’t have the necessary resources in place to promote follow-up care after an abnormal Pap test, similar to the disparities that we see in cervical cancer,” she said during the virtual Association of Nurses in AIDS Care 2020 Annual Meeting.
Single-center study
In the United States, people living with HIV are 19 times more likely to develop anal cancer than the general population, according to a 2018 article in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Another single-center study from Yale University found that, in minority communities, anal cancer rates were 75% higher than in White communities. Anal cancer rates were 72% higher in communities with greater poverty. As a result, many clinics are beginning to administer Pap tests to determine early signs of HPV infection and associated changes.
In Dr. Wells’ study, which was conducted from 2012 to 2015, 150 adults with HIV who were aged 21 and older were recruited from Grady Ponce De Leon Center in Atlanta. According to a 2018 study from that center, a large minority of participants had late-stage HIV and suppressed immune systems.
All participants had been referred for HRA after a recent abnormal anal Pap test. Participants filled out questionnaires on sociodemographics, internalized HIV-related stigma, depression, risk behaviors, social support, and knowledge about HPV and anal cancer.
Participants were disproportionately older (mean age, 50.9 years); cisgender (86.7%), Black (78%); and gay, lesbian, or bisexual (84.3%). Slightly more than 1 in 10 participants (11.3%) were transgender women.
Although for 6% of participants, Pap test results indicated high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (HSIL), an additional 8% had atypical Pap findings that couldn’t exclude HSIL – the kinds of results that are one step away from a cancer diagnosis. More than 80% of participants had low-grade or inconclusive results. Nearly half (44%) of participants’ Pap tests revealed low-grade squamous cell intraepithelial cell lesions (LSIL); 42% indicated atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance.
When Dr. Wells looked at how long participants had waited to undergo HRA, she found something that surprised her: although some participants underwent follow-up assessment in 17 days, for many, it took much longer. The longest wait was 2,350 days – more than 6 years.
“There were quite a few patients who had follow-up beyond 1,000-plus days,” Dr. Wells said in an interview. “I didn›t think the delays were that long — at most, I would say that patients will get scheduled and come back within a few weeks or months.”
What’s more, she discovered through the HPV knowledge questionnaire that many participants did not understand why they were having a follow-up appointment. Anecdotally, some confused HPV with HIV.
“There’s education to be done to inform this target population that those living with HIV are more prone or at increased risk of this virus causing cancer later,” she said. “There are a lot of campaigns around women living with HIV, that they need to do cervical cancer screening. I think we need to really expand this campaign to include that HPV can also cause anal cancer.”
Dr. Wells had planned to primarily investigate the impact of psychosocial factors on wait time to follow-up, but none of those factors were associated with longer wait times.