Nearly half of never-smokers with a new lung cancer diagnosis also have obstructive sleep apnea, highlighting a need for better screening in this patient population.

By Valery Butto


RT’s Three Key Takeaways:

  1. High Prevalence: Nearly half of never-smokers with newly diagnosed lung cancer were found to have obstructive sleep apnea, according to study data.
  2. Disease Severity: Moderate-to-severe obstructive sleep apnea was present in 20.9% of the study participants before they began cancer treatment.
  3. Clinical Awareness: Researchers indicated that sleep apnea may be under-recognized in this population and requires increased attention for proper diagnosis and management in the healthcare setting.


Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) affected nearly half of never-smokers with newly diagnosed lung cancer, according to a prospective study published in Scientific Reports.

Investigators focused on never-smokers to better define the prevalence of OSA without the confounding factor of smoking. Among the 67 patients included in the final analysis, OSA—defined as a respiratory event index (REI) of at least five events per hour—was identified in 47.8% of the cohort. Additionally, 20.9% of patients presented with moderate-to-severe disease, defined as an REI of at least 15 events per hour.

The study population had a median age of 65 years, was 83.6% female, and had a median body mass index of 24 kg/m². Most participants had adenocarcinoma (97%), and 67.2% were diagnosed with advanced-stage disease. Before receiving cancer treatment, all patients underwent respiratory polygraphy to assess for sleep disorders.

While OSA was prevalent across all stages of lung cancer, the differences were not statistically significant. The prevalence was 29.4% in Stage I, 60.0% in Stage II, 65.0% in Stage III, and 44.0% in Stage IV. The researchers also found that neither the REI nor nocturnal hypoxemia levels—measured by the percentage of nighttime spent with oxygen saturation below 90%—differed significantly between early-stage and advanced-stage cases.

“The key message is not that obstructive sleep apnea predicts more advanced lung cancer in this cohort, but that it may be underrecognized in a population already carrying substantial disease burden,” the authors said in the study.

The findings suggest that OSA is common in this demographic and that proper diagnosis and management are necessary for these patients, particularly given the potential for underrecognition in the healthcare setting. The investigators concluded that these clinical features deserve more attention from clinicians treating never-smokers with a new lung cancer diagnosis.

Reference

Park J et al. Obstructive sleep apnea in never-smokers with newly diagnosed lung cancer: a prospective study in a predominantly female Korean population. Sci Rep. 2026;DOI:10.1038/s41598-026-45232-7.

This article was originally published by EMJ and was made available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 License.