Physical activity and sleep
What hormonal and molecular factors explain how physical activity and sleep influence cancer risk and can we intervene on these risk factors to help prevent cancer and its progression? In our Physical activity and sleep theme, we investigate the inter-relationships between physical activity, adiposity, molecular traits and sleep traits.
Highlights include:
Exploring links between sleep patterns and weight
We have found causal evidence for a feedback loop, with insomnia and napping traits increasing adiposity, and adiposity increasing daytime sleepiness. More information: doi.org/10.1002/oby.23668
Physical activity is not clearly linked to breast cancer via inflammation
Given the role of physical activity in reducing breast cancer risk, we investigated whether inflammation underlies this protective effect. While exercise interventions decrease levels of inflammation, only one of these inflammatory markers (C-reactive protein) is linked with breast cancer.
Sleep does not appear to influence breast cancer prognosis
Following on from our previous work which has implicated certain sleep traits (morning/evening preference and sleep duration) in relation to breast cancer risk, we were interested in investigating whether sleep is also linked to breast cancer prognosis. We found limited evidence that sleep traits play a causal role in breast cancer mortality.
Insomnia is implicated in ovarian cancer risk and survival
We have extended our investigations to study the role of sleep in ovarian cancer, where our findings support the impact of insomnia on epithelial ovarian cancer risk and survival. This suggests that treatments targeting insomnia could be pivotal for prevention and improving patient survival.
TV watching and computer use is not clearly linked with breast, colorectal and prostate cancer
Since sedentary behaviours have been associated with increased risks of some common cancers, we set out to investigate whether TV watching and computer use were causally linked with breast, colorectal and prostate cancer. After accounting for educational background, we found limited evidence to support a link between these sedentary behaviours and cancer risk.
Sleep may be important for stopping smoking
We have found that nicotine levels are linked with sleep patterns among smokers. We have also identified that sleep quality and fatigue severity may be important for successful smoking cessation.
Some key findings of ICEP1 highlight the causal role of physical activity and certain sleeping patterns in reducing cancer risk.
We are now exploring why physical activity and sleep are important. As well as the interplay between activity and sleep patterns, we are investigating a variety of hormonal and molecular factors that may underly the effects observed on a range of cancers. We are also delving further into the use of accelerometers for measuring physical activity and sleep.
This research theme has important translational implications in terms of informing public health strategies for the promotion of physical activity and healthy sleep for cancer prevention.
