Circadian Sleep Disruption and Cancer Risk

Abstract

In circadian sleep disruption is a major consequence of both night shift and chronic to artificial at night (LAN) and has been shown to likelihood of hormone-dependent including and prostate in several cohort and case-control studies as well as in animal experiments. In addition, strong mechanistic evidence has been reported at the cellular and molecular levels in this regard. Thus, in the monographs of carcinogenic hazards to humans, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified shift work that involves circadian disruption in Group 2A, ‘probably carcinogenic to humans’ consecutively in 2007 and in 2019. This review aims to enable a better understanding of the complex relationship between circadian sleep distribution and cancer risk and addresses some precautionary measures to limit the risk of carcinogenesis in populations working in night-shifts and/or exposed to LAN.