Light-at-night, circadian disruption and breast cancer: assessment of existing evidence
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TLDR
If a consensus eventually emerges that LAN does increase risk, then the mechanisms for the effect are important to elucidate for intervention and mitigation and will provide for the development of lighting technologies at home and at work that minimize circadian disruption, while maintaining visual efficiency and aesthetics.Abstract:
Background Breast cancer incidence is increasing globally for largely unknown reasons. The possibility that a portion of the breast cancer burden might be explained by the introduction and increasing use of electricity to light the night was suggested >20 years ago.
Methods The theory is based on nocturnal light-induced disruption of circadian rhythms, notably reduction of melatonin synthesis. It has formed the basis for a series of predictions including that non-day shift work would increase risk, blind women would be at lower risk, long sleep duration would lower risk and community nighttime light level would co-distribute with breast cancer incidence on the population level.
Results Accumulation of epidemiological evidence has accelerated in recent years, reflected in an International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classification of shift work as a probable human carcinogen (2A). There is also a strong rodent model in support of the light-at-night (LAN) idea.
Conclusion If a consensus eventually emerges that LAN does increase risk, then the mechanisms for the effect are important to elucidate for intervention and mitigation. The basic understanding of phototransduction for the circadian system, and of the molecular genetics of circadian rhythm generation are both advancing rapidly, and will provide for the development of lighting technologies at home and at work that minimize circadian disruption, while maintaining visual efficiency and aesthetics. In the interim, there are strategies now available to reduce the potential for circadian disruption, which include extending the daily dark period, appreciate nocturnal awakening in the dark, using dim red light for nighttime necessities, and unless recommended by a physician, not taking melatonin tablets.read more
Citations
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References
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TL;DR: There is limited evidence for a causal association between nightshift work and breast cancer, while there is insufficient evidence for prostate cancer, colon cancer, and overall cancer.
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Rotating shift work and risk of prostate cancer
TL;DR: It is suggested that working full-time rotating shifts may be associated with increased risk of prostate cancer, given previous epidemiologic research showing shift work as a risk factor for breast and colorectal cancers in women.
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Riding Tandem: Circadian Clocks and the Cell Cycle
Tim Hunt,Paolo Sassone-Corsi +1 more
TL;DR: The circadian clock, which governs metabolic and physiological rhythms in diverse organisms, shares common features with the cell cycle but these two oscillatory systems seem to be fully independent of each other.
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Sleep duration and the risk of prostate cancer: the Ohsaki Cohort Study
Masako Kakizaki,K Inoue,Shinichi Kuriyama,Toshimasa Sone,Kaori Matsuda-Ohmori,Naoki Nakaya,Shin Fukudo,Ichiro Tsuji +7 more
TL;DR: In a prospective study of prostate cancer incidence, sleep duration was associated with lower risk; the multivariate hazard ratio of men who slept ⩾9 h per day compared with those who slept less was 0.48.