Association between Diagnostic History and Cancer Incidence within 5 Years: A Real-world Observational Analysis

Authors

• Md Ashad Alam, Ochsner Center for Outcomes Research, New Orleans, LA
• Grace Williams, Ochsner Center for Outcomes Research, New Orleans, LA
• Muhammad G. Kibriya, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL
• Marc Matrana, Louisiana Cancer Research Center, New Orleans, LA
• Nicholas Duesbery, Ochsner Center for Outcomes Research, New Orleans, LA
• Edward Trapido, LSU Health Sciences Center - New OrleansFollow
• Daniel Fort, Ochsner Center for Outcomes Research, New Orleans, LA

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

5-11-2026

Publication Title

Cancer Research Communications

Abstract

Cancer is associated with many preexisting health conditions (PHC); however, accurately quantifying these links remains challenging. Although some studies have examined these associations, large-scale analyses using diverse electronic health record (EHR) data remain limited and lack the ability to evaluate cancer risk when patients are stratified by interpersonal differences. Using a real-world EHR dataset from a large Louisiana health system comprising 8,283,236 records from 1,460,738 patients (2013-2022), we evaluated associations between PHCs and subsequent cancer diagnoses within a fixed 5-year risk window. We applied epidemiologic, statistical, and artificial intelligence methods to the full dataset and to subgroups stratified by gender, race, and area deprivation index (ADI) for overall cancer and 20 cancer types. We identified 9 chapters of International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision, including chapter 4 (metabolic) and chapter 14 (genitourinary), with 221 PHCs linked to increased cancer risk (relative risk > 1, 95% confidence interval excluding 1, and Benjamini-Hochberg false discovery rate-adjusted P < 0.05). Key PHCs include systemic sclerosis, blood type, benign mammary dysplasia, immune mechanism disorders, disturbances of smell, lipoprotein metabolism disorders, human immunodeficiency virus disease, vitamin D deficiency, and diabetes. Chapter 12 (skin diseases) and chapter 9 (circulatory diseases) showed strong associations with 10 and 13 cancer types, respectively. Age-, gender-, race-, and ADI-specific high-risk PHCs were also identified. However, these findings should be interpreted carefully as ADI may not fully capture individual-level socioeconomic or environmental exposures, and the lack of tobacco data may introduce residual confounding.

First Page

1083

Last Page

1091

PubMed ID

41996637

Volume

6

Issue

5

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Alam, Md Ashad; Williams, Grace; Kibriya, Muhammad G.; Matrana, Marc; Duesbery, Nicholas; Trapido, Edward; and Fort, Daniel, "Association between Diagnostic History and Cancer Incidence within 5 Years: A Real-world Observational Analysis" (2026). School of Public Health Faculty Publications. 592.
https://digitalscholar.lsuhsc.edu/soph_facpubs/592
10.1158/2767-9764.CRC-26-0163