ReviewJournal of the National Cancer Center2025
The multifaceted impact of circadian disruption on cancer risk: a systematic review of insights and economic implications.
Review in Journal of the National Cancer Center, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Comparative effectiveness and safety of robotic versus laparoscopic liver resection for benign liver diseases: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC gastroenterology · 2026Pooled it
- Nightshift work and risk of breast and prostate cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis, 2012-2023.Anales del sistema sanitario de Navarra · 2025Pooled it
- Disruption of cellular timekeeping in cancer: links between circadian clocks, metabolism, and tumor progression.Molecular biology reports · 2026Review
- Work at night, sleep loss, fatigue, and cancer: exposure, mechanisms, and epidemiological evidence.Journal of the National Cancer Center · 2026Article
- Built and socioeconomic environment: associations with cancer-risk health behaviors among healthy emerging adults.Journal of behavioral medicine · 2026Article
- Circadian Rhythms in Colorectal Cancer: Recent Advances in Development and Treatment.Journal of clinical medicine research · 2026Review
- Night shift work and risk of total and site-specific cancer: results from a prospective cohort study among Chinese men.Scandinavian journal of work, environment & health · 2026Article
- The vicious cycle of circadian disruption and obstructive sleep apnea: implications for cancer risk.Journal of the National Cancer Center · 2026Article
- The association between activity patterns and malignant neoplasms of female genital organs: a prospective cohort study of UK biobank.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2026Article
- Neural regulation of tumor progression: implications for hepatocellular carcinoma.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Review
- Metastasis in biological time.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2026Review
- Disrupted circadian control promotes oncogenesis in breast cancer.Bioinformation · 2025Article
- CirRFKB: A knowledgebase of circadian-related risk factors for cancer pathogenesis and personalized medicine.Computational and structural biotechnology journal · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Circadian disruption has emerged as a significant risk factor for cancer, driven by mechanisms such as hormonal imbalances, impaired DNA repair, immune suppression, and metabolic dysregulation. Modern societal patterns-shift work, artificial light at night, and irregular sleep schedules-have exacerbated these risks. Methods: We conducted a systematic review following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, screening over 500 studies published between 2003 and 2023 from PubMed, Scopus, Embase, ScienceDirect, and Web of Science. Inclusion criteria focused on peer-reviewed epidemiological and mechanistic studies linking circadian disruption with cancer risk. The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale was used for methodological quality assessment. Results: A total of 75 high-quality studies were included. Strong evidence supports associations between circadian disruption and breast, prostate, and colorectal cancers, with limited but emerging evidence for melanoma and bladder cancer. Mechanistic pathways involve melatonin suppression, dysregulation of CLOCK and BMAL1 genes, reduced natural killer cell activity, and chronic inflammation due to metabolic imbalance. Light-at-night (LAN) exposure and prolonged night shift work were consistently identified as major risk factors. Furthermore, economic analyses reveal a substantial burden due to increased healthcare costs and productivity losses, particularly in shift work-dominated sectors. Conclusions: Circadian misalignment is a critical, yet often overlooked, contributor to cancer incidence and associated economic burdens. Public health strategies-such as regulating shift schedules, reducing LAN exposure, and promoting chronotherapy-are essential to mitigate these risks. Further research should address sex-based differences, improve exposure measurement, and extend investigations to low- and middle-income countries.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.