{"id":595466,"date":"2026-04-09T10:43:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T10:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/595466\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T10:43:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T10:43:07","slug":"anaemia-linked-to-increased-cancer-risk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/595466\/","title":{"rendered":"Anaemia Linked To Increased Cancer Risk"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;We found that both the risk of cancer and the risk of death are highest during the first months after anaemia is detected, but that the increased risk persists later during follow-up as well,&#8221; says  <a href=\"https:\/\/ki.se\/personer\/susanna-elinor-nemlander\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Elinor Nemlander<\/a> , researcher at the  <a href=\"https:\/\/ki.se\/en\/nvs\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society<\/a> , Karolinska Institutet, and first author of the study.<\/p>\n<p>Type of anaemia matters <\/p>\n<p>The study also shows that the type of anaemia is important. Individuals with small red blood cells, known as microcytosis, had a particularly high risk of cancer, especially cancers of the gastrointestinal tract and the haematopoietic system. By contrast, individuals with large red blood cells, macrocytosis, showed a stronger association with increased mortality, but not with cancer to the same extent. Red blood cell size is measured using the laboratory value MCV, which is included in routine blood tests.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Our findings suggest that anaemia may be a sign of underlying disease rather than a condition in its own right. Blood tests that are already part of routine care can provide important information about which patients need closer follow-up,&#8221; says Elinor Nemlander.<\/p>\n<p>The study was conducted in collaboration between researchers at Karolinska Institutet, Karolinska University Hospital and Uppsala University, and primary care in Region Stockholm. The research was funded by the Einar Belv\u00e9n Foundation, Region Stockholm, the Stockholm-Gotland Regional Cancer Centre, and the Swedish Lung Cancer Society. The authors declare no conflicts of interest.<\/p>\n<p>Publication<\/p>\n<p>&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/bmjoncology.bmj.com\/content\/5\/1\/e001038\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Incident anaemia as a marker of cancer and all- cause mortality: evidence from 380 114 adults in the population- based Stockholm Early Detection of Cancer Study (STEADY- CAN) cohort<\/a> &#8220;, Elinor Nemlander, Eliya Abedi, Jan Hasselstr\u00f6m, Per Ljungman, Andreas Rosenblad, Axel Carlsson, BMJ Oncology, online 6 April 2006, doi: 10.1136\/bmjonc-2025-001038.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#8220;We found that both the risk of cancer and the risk of death are highest during the first&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":595467,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[64,63,137],"class_list":{"0":"post-595466","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-health"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=595466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595466\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/595467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=595466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=595466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=595466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}