Australian researchers say people with very poor resistance to infections are much more likely to contract 20 different types of cancers.
In the medical journal The Lancet they report that transplant recipients or people with HIV have hugely increased rates of cancers linked to viruses, such as cervical cancer, liver cancer or lymphomas.
They also found increased rates of cancers not connected to viruses such as lip and lung cancer.
Professor Andrew Grulich from the National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research says some cancer rates are 10 times higher than in the general population.
"There have been many studies in the world of HIV and cancer, and transplants and cancer, but to my knowledge we're the first group to bring those two observations together and to find that the types and range of increased cancers is very similar between those groups," he said.
"We think that points to immune suppression as the primary cause of cancer in these people." © 2007 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
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