Prevention of Anal Cancer

To the Editor: The findings reported by Palefsky et al. (June 16 issue)(1) in the Anal Cancer-HSIL [high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion] Outcomes Research (ANCHOR) trial provide proof of principle that high-resolution anoscopy-guided periodic ablation of HSIL reduces the risk of anal cancer among human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive patients. However, the magnitude of this reduction was low, with a 48-month cumulative incidence of 0.9% in the intervention group and 1.8% in the control group. The between-group difference of approximately 0.2 percentage points per year is of debatable clinical relevance pending additional data on the disease stage and the treatment of and . . .

Automated summary

The study confirms that high-resolution anoscopy-guided periodic ablation of HSIL can reduce the risk of anal cancer in HIV-positive patients, although the magnitude of risk reduction is low.