SOURCE: Science News - Web Edition
DATE: January 23, 2009
EXCERPT: "To stay healthy, the body needs its zzz’s. But independent of slumber, human health also appears to require plenty of darkness — especially at night. Or so suggests a pair of new cancer studies.
One found that among postmenopausal women, the lower the overnight production of melatonin — a brain hormone secreted at night, especially during darkness — the higher the incidence of breast cancer. The second study correlated elevated prostate cancer incidence around the world with places that have the brightest signatures of light in satellite imagery.
Trends seen in both studies bolster animal data indicating that natural nighttime peaks in blood concentrations of melatonin, which tend to occur during sleep, depress the growth of the hormonally sensitive cancers.
Light will depress the body’s natural secretion of that hormone, whether someone is awake or asleep." more
RELATED PUBMED LINKS:
Schernhammer ES, Hankinson SE. Urinary melatonin levels and postmenopausal breast cancer risk in the nurses' health study cohort. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2009 Jan;18(1):74-9.
Viswanathan AN, Schernhammer ES. Circulating melatonin and the risk of breast and endometrial cancer in women. Cancer Lett. 2008 Dec 11.
Blask DE. Melatonin, sleep disturbance and cancer risk. Sleep Med Rev. 2008 Dec 16.
RELATED LINKS:
Brown DL, Feskanich D, Sánchez BN, Rexrode KM, Schernhammer ES, Lisabeth LD. Rotating Night Shift Work and the Risk of Ischemic Stroke. Am J Epidemiol. 2009 Apr 8.
Blask DE, Dauchy RT, Sauer LA. Putting cancer to sleep at night: the neuroendocrine/circadian melatonin signal. Endocrine. 2005 Jul;27(2):179-88. Review.
Blask DE, Dauchy RT, Sauer LA, Krause JA, Brainard GC. Light during darkness, melatonin suppression and cancer progression. Neuro Endocrinol Lett. 2002 Jul;23 Suppl 2:52-6. Review.
Clinton SM, Bedrosian TA, Abraham AD, Watson SJ, Akil H. Neural and environmental factors impacting maternal behavior differences in high- versus low-novelty-seeking rats. Horm Behav. 2010 Apr;57(4-5):463-73.
Dopfel RP, Schulmeister K, Schernhammer ES.Nutritional and lifestyle correlates of the cancer-protective hormone melatonin. Cancer Detect Prev. 2007;31(2):140-8. Epub 2007 Apr 6. Review.
Feskanich D, Hankinson SE, Schernhammer ES. Nightshift work and fracture risk: the Nurses' Health Study. Osteoporos Int. 2008 Sep 3.
Jasser SA, Blask DE, Brainard GC. Light during darkness and cancer: relationships in circadian photoreception and tumor biology. Cancer Causes Control. 2006 May;17(4):515-23. Review.
Hrushesky WJ, Blask DE. Re: Melatonin and breast cancer: a prospective study. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2004 Jun 2;96(11):888-9.
Schernhammer ES, Berrino F, Krogh V, Secreto G, Micheli A, Venturelli E, Sieri S, Sempos CT, Cavalleri A, Schünemann HJ, Strano S, Muti P. Urinary 6-sulfatoxymelatonin levels and risk of breast cancer in postmenopausal women. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2008 Jun 18;100(12):898-905.
Stevens RG, Blask DE, Brainard GC, Hansen J, Lockley SW, Provencio I, Rea MS, Reinlib L. Meeting report: the role of environmental lighting and circadian disruption in cancer and other diseases. Environ Health Perspect. 2007 Sep;115(9):1357-62.
Viswanathan AN, Hankinson SE, Schernhammer ES. Night shift work and the risk of endometrial cancer. Cancer Res. 2007 Nov 1;67(21):10618-22.
NOTES:
For more related articles, search PubMed for "Blask DE AND melatonin" or just "Blask DE" for more publications on melatonin and cancer and other health risks.
Richard Stevens, University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington,originated the 1987 hypothesis linking melatonin suppression with cancer. Search "Stevens RG" in PubMed for related works by Stevens.
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