Filip Jansåker is very clear that the study only shows indications and that it does not provide evidence for stronger conclusions.
Everyone knows someone who has had a urinary tract infection, it is a very common infection and we know that in most cases it is a easily treatable condition that does not need to be further investigated, he says.
But what has the research at Lund University shown?
Yes, that there may be a connection between urinary tract infections in people over 50 years and various types of urinary tract and gynecological cancer.
Most common in men
The study, which was conducted on primary care data between 1997 and 2018, included nearly 1.9 million women and 1.7 million men. In the material, the researchers have looked at how many of the individuals who during the twenty-year period were diagnosed with urinary tract infection and how many of them were later diagnosed with urinary tract or gynecological cancer.
605,557 individuals had urinary tract infection and of these, 24,137 had urinary tract or gynecological cancer, which corresponds to 3.99 percent. The clearest connection the researchers saw was for bladder cancer in men. Men who had urinary tract infection during the study period had 3.5 times higher incidence of bladder cancer than those who did not have urinary tract infection.
This is an indication that urinary tract infection may be an observandum for increased risk of, among other things, this type of cancer. Urinary tract infection may be a risk marker, but the study shows that the vast majority of those who had urinary tract infection were not diagnosed with cancer, says Jansåker.
Experienced general practitioners are aware of these connections, based on clinical experience. But it has never been tested in population research on this large scale.
Vigilance
The next step for the researchers is now to find out when urinary tract infection can be a sign of cancer that needs to be investigated.
The study does not provide evidence that all patients over 50 years with urinary tract infection should be investigated for cancer. Doctors must make a comprehensive assessment, but the study suggests that there may be reason for increased vigilance for certain types of cancer when doctors meet these patients, says Jansåker.
