Tuberculosis, or TB for short, is a well-known health issue worldwide, but scientists have discovered something new about it.
They found that people who have had TB are more likely to get certain types of cancer.
This discovery was shared at a big health conference in Barcelona, Spain, called the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases.
TB is a tricky disease because, even though we can cure it, it can still cause problems in different parts of the body. These problems can lead to a higher chance of getting cancer.
Scientists think this might happen because TB can damage our body’s tissues and DNA, or interfere with how our body fixes these damages.
In a study from South Korea, researchers looked at health records from 2010 to 2017 to understand this better.
They focused on people with TB and compared them to others who didn’t have TB but were similar in age, sex, where they lived, and their income levels.
They found that people who had TB were more likely to get cancer afterwards, especially lung cancer, blood cancer, cancer of the female reproductive organs, and cancer of the colon and rectum.
For example, the chance of getting lung cancer was more than three times higher for those who had TB.
The study also pointed out that smoking, drinking a lot of alcohol, having liver disease, and having a lung condition called chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) made it even more likely for someone with TB to get cancer.
The researchers, including Dr. Jiwon Kim and Dr. Jinnam Kim from South Korea, said that TB itself could increase the risk of getting different kinds of cancer. They suggest that people who have had TB should be carefully checked for cancer to catch it early if it does develop.
TB and cancer are both serious health issues. Discoveries like this help doctors and patients be more aware of the risks and can lead to better care for people who have had TB.
It’s an important reminder of how different health conditions can be connected and why ongoing research is crucial for our understanding and management of diseases.
If you care about lung health, please read studies about marijuana’s effects on lung health, and why some non-smokers get lung disease and some heavy smokers do not.
For more information about health, please see recent studies that olive oil may help you live longer, and vitamin D could help lower the risk of autoimmune diseases.
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