SynthesisOccupational medicine (Oxford, England)2025
Night shift work and breast cancer risk in healthcare workers: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Occupational medicine (Oxford, England), 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Reactive Oxygen Species in Breast Cancer: From Redox Dysregulation to ROS-Responsive Therapeutics.Cell biochemistry and function · 2026Review
- Sleep duration, selected circulating biomarkers, and colorectal cancer risk.European journal of cancer prevention : the official journal of the European Cancer Prevention Organisation (ECP) · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundHealthcare workers (HCWs) are often exposed to night shift work, which may increase cancer risk.
aimsWe conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis on night shift work and breast cancer risk in HCWs.
methodsWe systematically searched PubMed/Embase, evaluated the risk of bias (RoB) of the included studies, and estimated pooled relative risks (RR) using random-effects models.
resultsTwelve studies were included (12 132 breast cancer cases); 60% of these were rated as 'definitely' or 'probably' high RoB in the exposure characterization domain. Compared to never exposure, pooled RRs were 1.05 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.96-1.14, 12 studies, I2 = 39%) for ever, and 1.11 (95% CI 0.96-1.28, 9 studies, I2 = 62%) for ≥10 years, 1.25 (95% CI 1.01-1.55, 7 studies, I2 = 59%) for ≥20 years, and 1.68 (95% CI 0.77-3.65, 3 studies, I2 = 79%) for ≥30 years of night shift work. Pooled RRs were higher in case-control/nested studies and studies assessing lifetime occupational history. The RR for ≥20 years of exposure lost statistical significance in influence analysis and approached unity after correction for possible publication bias.
conclusionsLong-term night shift work may increase breast cancer risk in HCWs, but the association is far from established. If this association were real, night shift work would be responsible for a substantial number of breast cancers in HCWs.
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Registered trials
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