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Understanding and Reducing Risks via Infection in LBT Women

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Cancer and the LGBT Community

Abstract

Several infections are associated with increased risk of developing cancer. For example, persistent infection with high-risk strains of human papillomavirus causes cervical cancer. Our understanding of the association between infection and cancer in lesbian, bisexual and transgender (LBT) women is hampered by an absence of population-based data for LBT women. Formal epidemiologic studies of cancer, in general, and infection-associated cancer, in particular, among LBT individuals are lacking. This absence of robust epidemiologic data makes our understanding of infection-related cancer in the LBT women limited and speculative. This chapter attempts to summarize available epidemiologic data for infection-associated cancers in LBT women, highlight gaps in our knowledge, review interventions that have been used to reduce risk for infection-associated cancers in LBT women, and discuss challenges to research and policy that must be addressed in order prevent infection-associated cancers and reduce cancer disparities experienced by LBT women.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA

    J. Kathleen Tracy

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  1. J. Kathleen Tracy
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Correspondence to J. Kathleen Tracy .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Community Sciences, Boston Univ. School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    Ulrike Boehmer

  2. College of Pharmacy, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, USA

    Ronit Elk

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Tracy, J. (2015). Understanding and Reducing Risks via Infection in LBT Women. In: Boehmer, U., Elk, R. (eds) Cancer and the LGBT Community. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15057-4_3

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