Sleep apnea can raise risk of cancer, studies indicate

[Guest]

Sleep apnea can raise risk of cancer, studies indicate


Published May 21, 2012 Fox News and New York Times

| NewsCore




Two new studies indicate that people who suffer sleep apnea have a higher risk of developing cancer.

Due to be presented in San Francisco this week at an American Thoracic Society conference, the findings have been touted as "striking" by researchers, the New York Times reported.

Scientists say sleep apnea -- a widespread disorder suffered by 28 million Americans, which disrupts breathing and causes snoring -- is linked to low blood oxygen levels. That lack of oxygen can trigger the development of tumors.

One study, conducted at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health over 22 years, found that severe breathing problems at night increase the likelihood of dying from cancer by 4.8 times, compared to people who had no such breathing issues. People with moderate apnea were found to have double the risk of dying.

A second set of findings, from the Spanish Sleep Network, assessed the incidence of cancer, rather than the mortality rate.

Following 5,200 people over seven years, the study tracked oxygen depletion and found, for example, that people whose oxygen levels dipped below 90 percent, for up to 12 percent of the total time asleep, had a 68 percent greater likelihood of developing cancer, than people who did not have breathing difficulties at night.

Sleep apnea is widely understood to be related to obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart attacks and strokes -- conditions that are also linked to cancer.

[latinlover]

sorry, i forgot to login before i posted this article

[latinlover]

Sleep apnea can raise risk of cancer, studies indicate. similar article


Published May 21, 2012 Fox News and New York Times

| NewsCore




Two new studies indicate that people who suffer sleep apnea have a higher risk of developing cancer.

Due to be presented in San Francisco this week at an American Thoracic Society conference, the findings have been touted as "striking" by researchers, the New York Times reported.

Scientists say sleep apnea -- a widespread disorder suffered by 28 million Americans, which disrupts breathing and causes snoring -- is linked to low blood oxygen levels. That lack of oxygen can trigger the development of tumors.

One study, conducted at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health over 22 years, found that severe breathing problems at night increase the likelihood of dying from cancer by 4.8 times, compared to people who had no such breathing issues. People with moderate apnea were found to have double the risk of dying.

A second set of findings, from the Spanish Sleep Network, assessed the incidence of cancer, rather than the mortality rate.

Following 5,200 people over seven years, the study tracked oxygen depletion and found, for example, that people whose oxygen levels dipped below 90 percent, for up to 12 percent of the total time asleep, had a 68 percent greater likelihood of developing cancer, than people who did not have breathing difficulties at night.

Sleep apnea is widely understood to be related to obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart attacks and strokes -- conditions that are also linked to cancer.

[Slartybartfast]

Sounds like they are talking about UN-treated sleep apnea, but it's not absolutely clear. Would be interesting to know that nugget. Is apnea involved with the cause or is it only associated? Were the test subjects those who underwent a sleep study, but refused the hose? If the latter,then maybe they are also not particularly health-conscious. And maybe other lifestyle choices are involved. The devil's in the details.

[PST]

Sounds like they are talking about UN-treated sleep apnea, but it's not absolutely clear. Would be interesting to know that nugget. Is apnea involved with the cause or is it only associated? Were the test subjects those who underwent a sleep study, but refused the hose? If the latter,then maybe they are also not particularly health-conscious. And maybe other lifestyle choices are involved. The devil's in the details.

The full NY Times summary, which is at well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/20/sleep-apnea-tied-to-increased-cancer-risk/, is clearer than the short item quoted above in showing that the correlation is with untreated apnea. The theory discussed is that low oxygen saturation (hypoxemia) causes angiogenesis, the formation of new blood vessels. Tumors cannot grow unless they develop such vessels, and prolonged periods of oxygen deprivation stimulates their formation.

In the second study, researchers with the Spanish Sleep Network took a slightly different approach, looking not at cancer mortality among apnea patients, but at the incidence of cancer. They used a measure called the hypoxemia index, which looks at the amount of time the level of oxygen in a person’s blood drops below 90 percent at night.

About 5,200 people were followed for seven years, none of whom had a cancer diagnosis when the study began. The researchers found that the greater the extent of hypoxemia, or oxygen depletion, during sleep, the more likely a person would receive a cancer diagnosis during the study period.

People whose oxygen levels dropped below 90 percent for up to 12 percent of the total time they were asleep, for example, had a 68 percent greater likelihood of developing cancer than people whose oxygen levels did not plummet at night, said study author Dr. Miguel Angel Martinez-Garcia of La Fe University and Polytechnic Hospital in Spain. As time spent without oxygen increased, so, too, did cancer risk.

Although the study did not look for it, Dr. Martinez-Garcia speculated that treatments for sleep apnea like continuous positive airway pressure, or CPAP, which keeps the airways open at night, might reduce the association.

The Wisconsin study also did not specifically look at the impact of treatment for apnea on survival, either, but when people who were being treated with CPAP were removed from the analysis, the cancer association became stronger, “which is consistent with the hypoxemia theory,” Dr. Nieto said.

[Slartybartfast]

Thanks, I saw that, but was wondering about their methodology. Were these untreated apneics? People who had been diagnosed but did not undergo treatment for one reason or another? Or was that detail captured? I suppose I can wait for the journal to come out and order a copy of the study.

[chunkyfrog]

Any more parallel threads and we can start weaving.

[sandyf]

My cpap uses distilled water. Does one need to use fresh oxygen from a tank to avoid the risk?