A recent medical study has shown that newly discovered anemia in adults may be an early sign of cancerous tumors in the body.
The study was conducted by researchers from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, where data from more than 190,000 people diagnosed with anemia for the first time, and the same number of healthy people, were analyzed. It was found that within 18 months of the diagnosis of anemia, cancer was discovered in 6.2% of men and 2.8% of women with anemia, which is almost double the rate among those without anemia. The risk of death also increased among patients with low hemoglobin levels, especially in the first months of follow-up.
Further analysis showed that the type of anemia also plays a role in this relationship. In cases of small red blood cell size, tumors in the digestive and hematopoietic systems were more frequently detected, while large red blood cell size was associated with a higher mortality rate, although its association with cancer was less clear.
Researchers emphasize that anemia may not be a disease in itself, but rather a sign of underlying diseases, and that routine blood tests used in medical practice can help identify patients who need more comprehensive medical examinations.
