Women with Sleep Apnea Have Elevated Cancer Risk

Posted November 17, 2020

A recent study published in August, 2019 in the European Respiratory Journal, drew from the European database ESADA, which included about 20,000 adult patients with sleep apnea. About 2% of these patients had a cancer diagnosis.

The study found first that cancer risk was linked to age, but beyond that it was also linked to breathing stoppages during sleep. That’s after correcting for various risk factors such as:

Gender
Body mass index (BMI)
Smoking
Alcohol consumption

The study showed that the risk was higher for women with intermittent sleep hypoxia. Severe sleep apnea may have as much as tripled the cancer risk for women. For men, cancer risk was also elevated, but the statistical significance of this increase was lower.

Not a Causal Link

Researchers caution that this study doesn’t actually say that sleep apnea causes cancer in women. However, it strongly hints at mechanisms that could contribute to an elevated cancer risk. Researchers proposed that this link could be related to female sex hormones and stress activation, which could either trigger the development of sleep apnea or weaken the body’s ability to fight cancer during its early stages.

They also proposed that more work should be done on specific cancers, such as breast cancer, womb cancer, or cervical cancer, that affect women.

Protect Your Health by Treating Sleep Apnea

This study reminds us how important it is to treat sleep apnea. The myriad health effects of this condition can combine to dramatically increase your risk of death at a young age. For example, one 2014 study showed that sleep apnea is linked to a fourfold increase in risk of all-cause mortality. This includes a tripling of the death risk from cancer. Other studies show as much as a sixfold increase in mortality risk.

Are you looking to protect your health from the effects of sleep apnea? We can help. Please call 704-964-6404, today for an appointment with Lake Norman’s exclusive sleep dentist and Diplomate, American Board of Dental Sleep Medicine Dr. Ronald Cox at Good Night Dentistry.

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