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Dr Gérald Kierzek (Medical Director of Doctissimo)
Are people who snore more at risk of developing cancer? In any case, this is what a study suggests, presented at the international congress of the European Respiratory Society (ERS), which was held in Barcelona, from September 4 to 6, 2022.
According to the Swedish scientists who put forward these conclusions, the link between sleep apnea and cancer does not come from their overweight, their smoking or their health problems in general, but rather because of the lack of oxygen in their organism. that is created at night, during their sleep.
A cohort of 4200 people
The authors of this study worked under the direction of Dr. Andreas Palm, of Uppsala University, Sweden. They followed nearly 4,200 patients with a form of obstructive sleep apnea.
They have also, for half of them, been diagnosed with cancer in the last five years. The volunteers were therefore given two tests, one of which measured the number of breathing disorders during sleep and scored them on the apnea-hypopnea index, while the other measured how many times the levels of Blood oxygen dropped by 3% for at least 10 seconds per hour – the oxygen desaturation index.
The results showed that cancer patients generally had more interruptions while sleeping.
No proven causal link
For Dr. Palm, it is known that “patients suffering from obstructive sleep apnea have an increased risk of cancer. Our results show that oxygen deprivation due to sleep apnea is independently associated with cancer.”
However, this study being simply based on an observation, it is currently impossible for researchers to affirm that apnea causes cancer. “Further research is needed and we hope our study will encourage other researchers to research this important topic,” Dr. Palm concluded.