Resetting the body clock could help fight breast cancer, study finds

Credit: Getty Images/Ilya Lukichev

By Olivia Bowthorpe

Breast cancer treatment could be boosted by restoring a normal day-night hormone cycle, research suggests.

Even before tumours become detectable, breast cancer can cause flattened cortisol rhythms, the study in mice found, triggering fatigue, sleep disruption, impaired T cell function and decreased survival.

But reinforcing these rhythms might complement conventional treatment and improve patient outcomes, believes Dr Jeremy Borniger, assistant professor at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in the US.

“The brain is an exquisite sensor of what’s going on in your body,” said Dr Borniger. “But it requires balance. Neurons need to be active or inactive at the right times. If that rhythm goes out of sync even a little bit, it can change the function of the entire brain.”

In the study, breast tumours in mice disrupted the activity of neurons that regulate corticosterone, the rodent equivalent of cortisol. Within days of a tumour being induced, these neurons became hyperactive but produced lower output, flattening the normal daily rise and fall of the hormone.