Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Multicenter Study
. 2013 Jan 1;187(1):99-105.
doi: 10.1164/rccm.201209-1671OC. Epub 2012 Nov 15.

Association between obstructive sleep apnea and cancer incidence in a large multicenter Spanish cohort

Francisco Campos-Rodriguez  1 , Miguel A Martinez-Garcia, Montserrat Martinez, Joaquin Duran-Cantolla, Monica de la Peña, María J Masdeu, Monica Gonzalez, Felix del Campo, Inmaculada Gallego, Jose M Marin, Ferran Barbe, Jose M Montserrat, Ramon Farre; Spanish Sleep Network
Affiliations
Multicenter Study

Association between obstructive sleep apnea and cancer incidence in a large multicenter Spanish cohort

Francisco Campos-Rodriguez et al. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. .

Abstract

Rationale: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) has been associated with increased cancer mortality, but whether it is also associated with cancer incidence is unknown.

Objectives: To investigate whether OSA is associated with increased cancer incidence in a large clinical cohort.

Methods: A multicenter, clinical cohort study including consecutive patients investigated for suspected OSA between 2003 and 2007 in seven Spanish teaching hospitals. Apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) and percent nighttime with oxygen saturation less than 90% (TSat(90)) were used as surrogates of OSA severity, both as continuous variables and categorized by tertiles. Cox proportional hazards regression analyses were used to calculate hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) for cancer incidence after adjusting for confounding variables.

Measurements and main results: A total of 4,910 patients were analyzed (median follow-up, 4.5 yr; interquartile range, 3.4-5.2). Compared with the lower TSat(90) category (<1.2%), the adjusted hazards (95% CI) of cancer incidence for increasing categories were 1.58 (1.07-2.34) for TSat(90) 1.2-12% and 2.33 (1.57-3.46) for TSat(90) greater than 12%. Continuous TSat(90) was also associated with cancer incidence (adjusted HR, 1.07 [1.02-1.13] per 10-unit increase in TSat(90)). In stratified analyses, TSat(90) was associated with cancer incidence in patients younger than 65 years (adjusted HR, 1.13 [95% CI, 1.06-1.21] per 10-unit increase in TSat(90)) and males (adjusted HR, 1.11 [95% CI, 1.04-1.17] per 10-unit increase in TSat(90)). AHI was not associated with cancer incidence in the adjusted analyses, except for patients younger than 65 years (adjusted HR for AHI >43 vs. <18.7, 1.66; 95% CI, 1.04-2.64).

Conclusions: Increased overnight hypoxia as a surrogate of OSA severity was associated with increased cancer incidence. This association seems to be limited to men and patients younger than 65 years of age.

PubMed Disclaimer

Comment in

Publication types