Association Between Nocturnal Hypoxemia and Cancer Incidence in Patients Investigated for OSA

Background Previous studies have yielded inconsistent findings regarding the association between OSA and cancer in humans. Research Question Is there an association between indexes of sleep-disordered breathing severity and cancer incidence in patients investigated for suspected OSA? Study Design and Methods Data from a large multicenter cohort of cancer-free patients investigated for OSA were linked to health administrative data to identify new-onset cancer. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and Cox proportional hazards models were used to evaluate the association of cancer incidence with OSA severity and nocturnal hypoxemia. Results After a median follow-up period of 5.8 years (interquartile range, 3.8-7.8), 718 of 8,748 patients (8.2%) had received a diagnosis of cancer. On unadjusted Kaplan-Meier survival analyses, cancer incidence was associated with increasing severity of OSA (log-rank test, P Interpretation Nocturnal hypoxemia was associated with all-cancer incidence in patients investigated for OSA. Whether OSA therapy might reduce the risk of cancer needs further evaluation.