Night-Shift Work and Risk of Colorectal Cancer in the Nurses' Health Study

Schernhammer, Eva; Laden, Francine; Speizer, Frank E.; Willett, Walter C.; Hunter, David J.; Kawachi, Ichiro; Fuchs, Charles S.; Colditz, Graham A.

doi:10.1093/jnci/95.11.825

Cited by 701 publications

(492 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Schernhammer et al 33,34) observed a significantly increased risk of breast or colorectal cancer among women who had worked 1-14 yr, or 15 yr or more on rotating night shifts in a nurses' health study in the US. The authors tried to explain the pathogenesis of breast cancer as exposure to light during night work, i.e., suppressed melatonin production 35) .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of DNA Damage in Japanese Nurses Handling Antineoplastic Drugs by the Comet Assay

Sasaki

Dakeishi

Hoshi

et al. 2008

Journal of Occupational Health

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Assessment of DNA Damage in Japanese Nurses Handling Antineoplastic Drugs by the Comet Assay: Makiko SASAKI, et al. Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Akita University School of Medicine-To clarify genotoxic effects of occupational exposure to antineoplastic drugs in Japan, we examined DNA damage, assessed by the comet assay, in 121 female nurses and 46 female clerks working at three hospitals in the northeast of Japan. The comet assay is considered to be a sensitive and rapid method for DNA strand break detection in individual cells, and tail length and tail moment are used as the comet parameters. Concerning the basal characteristics, the 46 control subjects had higher rates of smoking and coffee-drinking habits and lower hemoglobin than the 121 nurses (p<0.05). The logtransformed tail length in the nurses was significantly longer than that in the control subjects after adjusting for possible covariates such as age and smoking habit (p<0.05). Also, the log-transformed tail length was significantly longer, in the 57 nurses who had handled antineoplastic drugs in the last six months, than that in the 46 control subjects (p<0.05); but, no significant difference in tail length or tail moment was seen between the two nurse groups with and without experience of handling hazardous drugs (p>0.05). These results suggest that Japanese nurses who have worked at hospitals using antineoplastic drugs may have a potential risk of DNA damage. To minimize this risk in Japan, use of biological safety cabinet and appropriate protective equipments, in addition to staff education and training, should be implemented in the healthcare environment. (J Occup Health 2008; 50: 7-12)

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of DNA Damage in Japanese Nurses Handling Antineoplastic Drugs by the Comet Assay

Sasaki

Dakeishi

Hoshi

et al. 2008

Journal of Occupational Health

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“…For example, NK cell cytolytic activity is significantly reduced after partial sleep deprivation (74) and correlates with a faster progression of breast cancer metastases (28). Indeed, an increased incidence of breast cancer and colorectal cancer has been documented in women working during night shift hours (75,76). However, further research will be necessary to unveil the plausible connection between the NK cell clock machinery and NK cell function.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Circadian Oscillations of Clock Genes, Cytolytic Factors, and Cytokines in Rat NK Cells

Arjona

Sarkar

2005

The Journal of Immunology

186

141

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A growing body of knowledge is revealing the critical role of circadian physiology in the development of specific pathological entities such as cancer. NK cell function participates in the immune response against infection and malignancy. We have reported previously the existence of a physiological circadian rhythm of NK cell cytolytic activity in rats, suggesting the existence of circadian mechanisms subjacent to NK cell function. At the cellular level, circadian rhythms are originated by the sustained transcriptional-translational oscillation of clock genes that form the cellular clock apparatus. Our aim in this study was to investigate the presence of molecular clock mechanisms in NK cells as well as the circadian expression of critical factors involved in NK cell function. For that purpose, we measured the circadian changes in the expression of clock genes (Per1, Per2, Bmal1, Clock), Dbp (a clock-controlled output gene), CREB (involved in clock signaling), cytolytic factors (granzyme B and perforin), and cytokines (IFN-γ and TNF-α) in NK cells enriched from the rat spleen. The results obtained from this study demonstrate for the first time the existence of functional molecular clock mechanisms in NK cells. Moreover, the circadian expression of cytolytic factors and cytokines in NK cells reported in this study emphasizes the circadian nature of NK cell function.

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“…In NHS2 for the category of 15 or more years of rotating night-shift work, we conservatively used 20 years because this category was the combination of 15–19, 20–29, and 30 or more years. We additionally collapsed years spent working on rotating night shifts into 3 categories (never, 1–14 years, and 15 or more years) to compare these results with our previously published report 8 . We used Cox proportional hazard models, with age in months and 2-year questionnaire cycles as the time-scale, to estimate the hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals of colorectal cancer for each shift work duration category, compared to those who never worked night shift work.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rotating night shift work and colorectal cancer risk in the nurses’ health studies

Papantoniou

Devore

Massa

et al. 2018

Intl Journal of Cancer

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Animal and human data have suggested that shift work involving circadian disruption may be carcinogenic for humans, but epidemiological evidence for colorectal cancer is still limited. We investigated the association of rotating night shift work and colorectal cancer risk in two prospective female cohorts, the Nurses´ Health Study (NHS) and NHS2, with 24 years of follow up. In total, 190,810 women (NHS=77,439; NHS2=113,371) were included in this analysis, and 1,965 incident colorectal cancer cases (NHS=1,527; NHS2=438) were reported during follow up (NHS: 1988–2012, NHS2: 1989–2013). We used Cox proportional hazards models adjusted for a wide range of potential confounders. We did not observe an association between rotating night work duration and colorectal cancer risk in these cohorts (NHS: 1–14 years: Hazard Ratio (HR) 1.04, 95% CI 0.94, 1.16; 15+ years: HR 1.15, 95% CI 0.95, 1.39; Ptrend=0.14 and NHS2: 1–14 years: HR 0.81, 95% CI 0.66, 0.99; 15+ years: HR 0.96, 95% CI 0.56, 1.64 and Ptrend=0.88). In subsite analysis in NHS, rectal cancer risk increased after long-term (15+ years) rotating night shift work (proximal colon cancer: HR 1.00, 95%CI 0.75, 1.34, Ptrend= 0.90; distal colon cancer: HR 1.27, 95%CI 0.87, 1.85, Ptrend= 0.32; rectal cancer: HR 1.60, 95%CI 1.09, 2.34, Ptrend= 0.02). We found no overall evidence of an association between rotating night shift work and colorectal cancer risk in these two large cohorts of nurses. Risk for rectal cancer significantly increased with shift work duration, suggesting that long-term circadian disruption may play a role in rectal cancer development.

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Night-Shift Work and Risk of Colorectal Cancer in the Nurses' Health Study

Cited by 701 publications

References 29 publications

Assessment of DNA Damage in Japanese Nurses Handling Antineoplastic Drugs by the Comet Assay

Assessment of DNA Damage in Japanese Nurses Handling Antineoplastic Drugs by the Comet Assay

Circadian Oscillations of Clock Genes, Cytolytic Factors, and Cytokines in Rat NK Cells

Rotating night shift work and colorectal cancer risk in the nurses’ health studies

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