Cancer is 36% more likely among asthmatics 2023

According to research published in the journal Cancer Medicine, individuals with asthma are 36 percent more likely to develop cancer than those without chronic respiratory disease.

Eight years were spent following 360,084 participants aged 18 to 65, including 90,014 asthmatics. Among the 13 forms of cancer analyzed by the researchers, those with asthma had a higher risk of developing lung cancer, blood cancer, melanoma, kidney cancer, and ovarian cancer during the study period.

About one-third of asthmatic study participants used inhaled corticosteroids to control and prevent asthma attacks, and both users and nonusers had a higher cancer risk.

People with asthma are 36% more likely to get cancer.

However, those with asthma who used inhaled steroids had an increased risk for only two cancer types (lung and melanoma), whereas nonusers had an increased risk for nine cancer types, “suggesting a protective effect of inhaled steroid use on cancer,” the researchers wrote.

As a potential link between asthma and cancer, they refer to the chronic inflammation associated with asthma, noting that previous research has linked persistent inflammation to the development and progression of cancer.

According to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, nearly 26 million Americans have asthma, including nearly 5 million infants and adolescents under the age of 18. In 2023, according to the National Cancer Institute, approximately 2 million Americans will be diagnosed with cancer.