A new study has found, the people having high levels of CRP or C-reactive protein which was already being suspected for causing heart disease, had been found with a higher risk of developing cancer.

CRP is linked to inflammation. But it is not obvious accurately whether inflammation may lead towards heart disease and cancer or it is just a warning sign of the diseases. There is a group of doctors who starts to consider that measurements of CRP should be necessary part of regular health check up.

Though the findings are just a prelude, these hold up a probable association between inflammation and cancer, and the C-reactive protein testing could be helpful in selecting the patients who should be more regularly screened for cancer.

The researchers conducted the research on a group of 1600 people and observed that after five years of cancer diagnosis, 40 percent of patients having high CRP levels were alive as compared to 70 percent patients with low CRP. There were patients developed cancer along with high CRP and were 80 percent more prone to die due to the cancer or any other reason.

By accumulating the prediction of heart disease risk, this easy test could be helpful in evaluating a patient’s tendency to develop cancer in the future and ultimate prediction of cancer, a researcher said.

However, more study is needed in this context to confirm the validity of test in predicting an accurate link between CRP levels and cancer.