You may know about your internal body clock. It’s called a circadian rhythm. It helps us do many things during the day. These things include expressing genes, fighting off sickness, and fixing damaged cells.
People with an unhealthy body clock can have health problems, like cancer. Scientists are now learning more about this.
They are studying how our body’s clock might help stop cancer from spreading. This idea was shared in a scientific article from some researchers in Switzerland.
Cancer and Your Body’s Clock
When we talk about cancer, we often worry about it spreading. This spread is called metastasis. It’s the main reason why people with cancer pass away.
For metastasis to happen, cancer cells have to move away from the original tumor. They then travel to new parts of the body.
Studies show that this moving happens at different times in the day. It depends on the type of cancer.
For instance, breast cancer tends to spread at night when we’re sleeping. Prostate cancer and multiple myeloma, however, spread at other times in the day.
Using Our Body’s Clock to Fight Cancer
This knowledge could be very useful. It could help us figure out the best time to give cancer treatments. This idea is called chronotherapy. It means giving medicine at certain times in the day.
Research shows that chronotherapy could be really helpful. It might lessen the bad side effects of cancer treatments. It might even make these treatments work better.
For example, people with skin cancer who had their medicine before 4:30 pm had a better chance of survival.
But this best time might change based on the type of cancer and treatment. It might also be influenced by things like the patient’s sex and genetic background.
Body Clock and Cancer Diagnosis
Knowing about our body’s clock could help doctors diagnose cancer too. Cancer cells make proteins at different times in the day. Some of these proteins are signs of cancer.
If doctors take tests at the time when these proteins are highest, they could avoid misdiagnosing patients.
The Future of Cancer Treatment
So, we see that our body’s clock might play a big role in treating cancer. We could use it to decide the best time to give treatments. We could also use it to improve cancer diagnosis.
But the researchers say we still need to learn more. They believe that understanding these things better will help us fight cancer more effectively in the future.
If you care about cancer, please see recent studies about new way to increase the longevity of cancer survivors, and results showing new way to supercharge cancer-fighting T cells.
For more information about health, please see recent studies about how drinking milk affects risks of heart disease and cancer and results showing that vitamin D supplements could strongly reduce cancer death.
The study was published in Trends in Cell Biology.
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