People with a high white blood cell count -- a sign of inflammation -- are more likely to die of cancer, a new study finds.The research points to an “important new epidemiological evidence of an essential link between inflammation and cancer mortality,” conclude researchers at the National University of Singapore.Their study included data on nearly 3,200 Australians, averaging close to 66 years of age, who were free of cancer when they were initially evaluated by researchers between 1992 and 1994. By the study’s end in late 2001, 212 of the study volunteers had died of some form of cancer.The risk of cancer death was greatest among study participants with the highest white blood cell counts, the researchers report in the Jan. 23 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine. This was true even when the researchers controlled for other factors that might affect white blood cell count, such as smoking, diabetes and aspirin use.The link between high white blood cell count and risk of death from cancer was especially strong for people who died of lung cancer.
