Sleep disorders provoke cancer
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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The results of the new study presented at the Annual Congress of the European Respiratory Society in Vienna indicate a strong relationship between sleep apnea and the deaths of cancer.
Apnea in a dream is a periodic cessation of pulmonary ventilation in a person for ten seconds or more during sleep. Scientists have found that this disorder significantly increases the risk of a lethal outcome of cancer.
During the first trial, the researchers examined the condition of more than 5,600 patients in Spain. The researchers used the hypoxemic index to determine the degree of sleep apnea in patients. This index measures how long a person's sleep level of oxygen in the blood is below normal.
It turned out that patients who had a blood oxygen saturation level below the 90 percent mark for 14 or more percent of their sleep time, the risk of cancer death was doubled compared to those whose airways normally worked during sleep. The strongest link between sleep apnea and cancer mortality was found among women and youth.
Apnea can be avoided with therapy aimed at maintaining a constant positive airway pressure. Such an effect is achieved by creating an airflow, through which the upper airways of the patient remain open during sleep. During the study it was found that patients who did not regularly use positive air pressure device, the risk of dying from cancer was higher than those who constantly used this device.
"We found a significant increase in the relative risk of dying from cancer in people with sleep apnea. Our study confirms only the existence of the relationship between cancer and apnea, but this does not mean that sleep apnea causes cancer in a dream, "said Dr. Angel Martinez Garcia, a leading researcher at the University Hospital of La Fe in Valencia.
The results of the second study were more or less identical. It was found that among people who suffer from sleep apnea, a much higher percentage of patients with any kind of cancer than among people without difficulty breathing during sleep. The results of the study were true for people of any gender, at any age and with any weight.
"We hope that our discoveries will stimulate people to undergo diagnostics for the development of apnea and immediately begin treatment in order to maintain a good quality of life," said Dr. Francisco Campos Rodriguez of the University Hospital Valme in Seville.
The authors of the study insist on the need for further research on this issue in order to clarify the nature of the relationship between cancer and apnea and the use of new discoveries for the benefit of medicine.
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