ArticleThe Lancet regional health. Europe2025
Sex-specific associations between sleep apnoea and lung cancer risk in patients with COPD: a nationwide prospective cohort study.
Article in The Lancet regional health. Europe, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Obesity, sleep apnea and cancer revisited.International journal of obesity (2005) · 2026Review
- Neural regulation in lung cancer: from mechanisms to new therapeutic perspectives.Clinical and experimental medicine · 2026Review
- Obstructive sleep apnea as a modifier of endocrine toxicities associated with immune checkpoint inhibitors in lung cancer.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: COPD is an established risk factor for lung cancer. Sleep apnoea is prevalent in COPD and the inflammation caused by intermittent hypoxaemia may increase this lung cancer risk. Females have more systemic inflammation for a similar apnoea-hypopnoea index than males. Therefore, this study aims to investigate sex-specific associations between sleep apnoea and lung cancer in COPD. Methods: The sex-specific absolute and relative risk of sleep apnoea on newly diagnosed lung cancer was estimated in a nationwide observational study of Belgian patients with COPD (≥55 years), between 2017 and 2022, using an Aalan-Johanson estimator and a cause-specific Cox regression model adjusted for age, socioeconomic status, smoking status, alcoholism, frailty, comorbidities, and comedication. Findings: The study consisted of 62,903 COPD patients (42·80% female), of whom 2898 (4·60%) developed lung cancer. We found a significant sex interaction of sleep apnoea on lung cancer hazard ( Interpretation: Sleep apnoea was associated with a higher risk of lung cancer in female COPD patients while, in males, there was a lower risk. Especially in female COPD patients with hypoxia, sleep apnoea is strongly associated with an increased lung cancer risk. Funding: Emmanuel van der Schueren cancer research fellowship "Kom Op Tegen Kanker".
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