Linking obstructive sleep apnoea and lung cancer: a further step down the road

Abstract

Extract Although the relationship between obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) and its main pathophysiological consequence, intermittent hypoxaemia (IH), with cardiovascular, neurocognitive and metabolic diseases has been studied since the 1980s, the first studies on OSA's relationship with an increase in the prevalence, incidence and aggressiveness of cancer date back less than 15 years ago. In 2007, A brams [1] was the first to introduce the hypothesis of a potential relationship between cancer and OSA through the resulting hypoxaemia that the author christened “the hypoxia connection”. It was only a decade ago, however, that studies first began to be carried out in murine and human models on large populations or clinical series [2–6].