A subsequent sensitivity analysis of diagnoses within the first year after the basal blood test showed a greater effect of CRP (HR = 1.15, CI 1.10–1.20, p < 0.001), and predictable cancer associations with conditions analogous to anemia, indicated by cancer-risk associations with low erythrocyte count (HR = 0.54, 95% CI 0.36–0.81, p = 0.003) and low mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (HR = 0.38, 95% CI 0.23–0.63, p < 0.001; Additional file 1: Table S5; and Additional file 2: Fig. S1). Here, CRP is linked to anemia.