Obstructive sleep apnoea associated with increased risk of cancer in people, claims study

 Obstructive sleep apnoea associated with increased risk of cancer in a people, claims study

People with an obstructive a sleep apnoea (OSA) have an elevated risk of cancer, according to a large study presented at the European Respiratory Society (ERS). A second study a showeda  that OSA was also linked to a decline in a processing powers in the elderly; in particular, those aged 74 years ora  more and men a showed a steeper decline in a certain a cognitive tests. A third study found that a patients with more a severe OSA were at  a greater risk of a developing a blood clots in their veins - a potentially a life-threatening a condition.

OSA is a common a sleep a disorder whereby a people an experience partial or  a complete a obstruction of their an airways during sleep and stop breathing several times a night. This can a manifest as loud snoring, gasping, choking and daytime sleepiness. It is a  believed to an affect at least 7-13% of the population. a People who are a overweight or an obese, have a diabetes, or who a smoke or a consume large amounts of an  alcohol are a most at risk of OSA.

Dr Andreas Palm, a researcher an senior  a consultant at Uppsala University, a Sweden, said: "It is a known already that patients with obstructive a sleep apnoea have an increased risk of a cancer but it has not been clear whether or not this is a due to the OSA itself or to related risk a factors for a cancer, such as obesity, cardiometabolic disease and lifestyle factors. Our a findings show that oxygen deprivation due to OSA is independently an associated with a cancer." 

Dr Palm and a colleagues looked at a data from 62,811a  patients five years prior to the start of a treatment for OSA in Sweden. Between July 2010 and a March 2018, patients were treated with a continuous a positive an airway pressure (CPAP), which provides a a positive pressure of an air through a mask to keep the airways open during a sleep. The a researchers linked these data with data from the Swedish a National a Cancer Registry and socio-economic a data from Statistics a Sweden.

The researchers a took account of a factors that could affect the results such as a body size, other health problems and socio-economic status. They matched 2,093 patients with OSA and a diagnosis of cancer up to a five years before OSA diagnosis with a control group of 2,093 patients with OSA but no cancer. 

They measured thea  severity of OSA with the apnoea hypopnea index (AHI), which measures the number of a breathing disturbances during sleep, or the oxygen desaturation index (ODI), which measures how many times an hour levels of oxygen in the blood fall by at least 3% for ten seconds or longer. 

"We found that a patients with cancer had slightly more severe OSA, as measured by an apnoea hypopnea an index average of 32 versus 30, and an oxygen desaturation index of 28 versus 26," he said. 

"In further analysis of a subgroups, ODI was a higher in a patients with lung cancer (38 versus 27) prostate a cancer (28 versus 24) and malignant melanoma (32 versus 25). The findings in a this study highlight the need to a consider a untreated sleep apnoea as a risk factor fora  cancer and for  adoctors to be aware of the possibility of cancer when a treating a patients with OSA. However, an extending screening for a cancer to a all OSA patients is not justified or a recommended by our a study a results."

The study only a looked at data from one a  point in time and it a cannot a show that OSA causes a cancer, only that it is an  associated with it. Some an important a lifestyle factors a such as   a physical an activity and food a preferences a were not a captured on an individual basis in the study. The main a strength of the study is its large size and the high a quality of data on cancer diagnosis and OSA. In the future, Dr Palm and his a colleagues plan to an increase the number of a patients and to a follow the patients over a time to a study the potential an influences of CPAP treatment on cancer an incidence and a survival.