Sleep apnea is a condition in which a person suffers from serious sleep disorder and disrupted sleep as their breathing starts and stop many times repeatedly. A patient suffering from sleep apnea will feel tired even after he gets a full night’s sleep. Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is one category of it, and it is the most common type. OSA is caused due to the relaxation of throat muscles during sleep. Among many diseases related to OSA like hypertension (high blood pressure), cognitive decline, stroke, and chronic fatigue, now researchers have detected the chance of cancer as well. Rate of sleep apnea is facing a dramatic rise in Americans and women are more susceptible to the disease. "Recent studies have shown that low blood oxygen levels during the night and disrupted sleep, which are both common in OSA, may play an important role in the biology of different types of cancers," says study author Athanasia Pataka, an assistant professor at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece. Looking into sex differences deeply during the study, researchers found that women suffering from OSA with low blood oxygen levels had more chances to get cancer than women without OSA. Findings reveal that, from among the group of participants, 2% were diagnosed with cancer and men mostly suffered from prostate cancer while women suffered from breast cancer. However, scientists ask the OSA patients not to panic as the results showed that overall cancer prevalence was low at just 2%.
