What Happens With Breast Cancer At Night? “When a sick person sleeps, the tumor awakens”

Breast cancer is one of the most common types of cancer affecting humanity. Every year, 2,3 million people are diagnosed with the disease. The discovery of Swiss scholars can help a lot in detecting it and treating it. It turned out that breast cancer is particularly eager to metastasize during sleep. “When a sick person sleeps, the tumor awakens” – says prof. Nicola Aceto. Why is this happening?

1. Scientists found that metastatic cells detach from the tumor mainly during sleep
2. What’s more, cells released during sleep divide faster, which makes it easier for them to form more tumors
3. Scientists want to see if other types of cancer behave similarly and how the treatments applied to different types of cancer work
4. More current information can be found on the Onet homepage.

“When a sick person is asleep, the tumor wakes up”

When breast cancer is detected early, treatment usually produces good results. However, therapy is much more difficult once metastases have occurred. They arise when cells detaching from the tumor travel to other places with the blood and create new disease centers there.

Scientists from the Federal University of Technology in Zurich (ETHZ) emphasize that so far little research has focused on the time when tumors are most likely to release cells. It was usually assumed that this was happening all the time at a constant pace. A different picture emerges from new research by the Swiss team: metastatic cells break off the tumor mainly during sleep.

The rest of the article is available under the video.

“When a sick person is asleep, the tumor wakes up” – says prof. Nicola Aceto, co-author of the publication that appeared in the magazine “Nature”.

What’s more, cells released during sleep divide faster, which makes it easier for them to form more tumors. The scientists came to such conclusions after observing 30 sick women and mice.

Why does breast cancer like sleep? Random discovery

According to scientists, hormones are the cause of the disease’s response to sleep. ‘Our study shows that the escape of cancerous cells from the primary tumor is controlled by hormones such as melatonin, which regulates the human circadian cycle,’ explains Dr Zoi Diamantopoulou, also from ETHZ.

Researchers made their discoveries by chance. “Some of my colleagues work in the morning, others work late in the afternoon, sometimes they analyze the blood at unusual hours” – says prof. Aceto.

Samples taken at different times contained a different number of tumor cells. Another indication was the particularly high number of diseased cells in mice compared to human samples. The reason was that the mice are active at night and sleep during the day – when the experiments were conducted.

Do other types of cancer behave similarly?

The discovery may help in caring for the sick. First, it can allow for more accurate diagnostics. Today, blood samples for testing are taken at different times, which, in light of the new data, affects the results. “In our opinion, the results described may indicate the need for systematic recording of biopsy times by medical personnel. This will help you to compare different results »- explains Prof. Aceto.

In the next steps, researchers want to see if other types of cancer behave similarly and if treatments given at different times work better or worse.

Marek Matacz / PAP

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