Study Suggests Potential Link between Urinary Tract Infections and Cancer in People Over 50
New research indicates a possible connection between urinary tract infections (UTIs) and certain cancers in individuals aged 50 and older. While the study doesn’t establish a direct causal relationship, it suggests UTIs could serve as a potential “risk marker.”
“Urinary tract infection can be a possible risk marker,” explains Filip Jansåker, a specialist physician in general medicine and associate professor at Lund University.he emphasizes the study only reveals indications, not definitive proof. “Everyone knows someone who has had urinary tract infection, it is indeed a very common infection and we certainly know that in most cases it is an easy-to-treat condition that does not need to be investigated further.”
The Lund University research examined data from nearly 1.9 million women and 1.7 million men, analyzing primary care records between 1997 and 2018.Researchers tracked UTI diagnoses over the twenty-year period and subsequent cancer diagnoses related to the urinary tract and gynecological systems.
A total of 605,557 individuals experienced a UTI, and of those, 24,137 were later diagnosed wiht a urinary tract or gynecological cancer – representing 3.99 percent of the group. The strongest correlation was observed in men with bladder cancer.Men who had a UTI during the study period had a 3.5 times higher incidence of bladder cancer compared to those without a UTI.
“These are indications that show that urinary tract infection can be an observation for increased risk of, among other things, this type of cancer. Urinary tract infection can be a risk marker, but the study shows that most people who had urinary tract infection were not diagnosed with cancer,” Jansåker clarifies. “Experienced general practitioners know these relationships, based on clinical experience. But it has never been tested in population research on this large scale.”
Researchers are now focused on determining when a UTI might signal an underlying cancer requiring further investigation.
“The study does not provide evidence that all patients over 50 years of urinary tract infection should be investigated for cancer. Doctors must make an overall assessment, but the study indicates that ther may be reasons for increased vigilance for some cancer types when doctors meet these patients,” Jansåker states.
