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Sleep disruption, chronotype, shift work, and prostate cancer risk and mortality: a 30-year prospective cohort study of Finnish twins

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Abstract

Purpose

Sleep disruption and shift work have been associated with cancer risk, but epidemiologic evidence for prostate cancer remains limited. We aimed to prospectively investigate the association between midlife sleep- and circadian-related parameters and later prostate cancer risk and mortality in a population-based cohort of Finnish twins.

Methods

Data were drawn from the Older Finnish Twin Cohort and included 11,370 twins followed from 1981 to 2012. Over the study period, 602 incident cases of prostate cancer and 110 deaths from prostate cancer occurred. Cox regression was used to evaluate associations between midlife sleep duration, sleep quality, chronotype, and shift work with prostate cancer risk and prostate cancer-specific mortality. Within-pair co-twin analyses were employed to account for potential familial confounding.

Results

Compared to “definite morning” types, “somewhat evening” types had a significantly increased risk of prostate cancer (HR 1.3; 95 % CI 1.1, 1.6). Chronotype significantly modified the relationship between shift work and prostate cancer risk (p-interaction <0.001). We found no significant association between sleep duration, sleep quality, or shift work and prostate cancer risk in the overall analyses and no significant association between any sleep- or circadian-related parameter and risk in co-twin analyses. Neither sleep- nor circadian-related parameters were significantly associated with prostate cancer-specific mortality.

Conclusion

The association between sleep disruption, chronotype, and shift work with prostate cancer risk and mortality has never before been studied in a prospective study of male twins. Our findings suggest that chronotype may be associated with prostate cancer risk and modify the association between shift work and prostate cancer risk. Future studies of circadian disruption and prostate cancer should account for this individual-level characteristic.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Kauko Heikkilä, Ph.Lic for assistance in database management.

Funding

BAD and SCM are supported by the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health Training Grant NIH T32 CA 009001. JK is supported by the Academy of Finland (Grants 265240 & 263278).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA

    Barbra A. Dickerman, Sarah C. Markt & Lorelei A. Mucci

  2. Department of Public Health, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 41, Mannerheimintie 172, 00014, Helsinki, Finland

    Markku Koskenvuo & Jaakko Kaprio

  3. Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Center of Expertise for the Development of Work and Organizations, Helsinki, Finland

    Christer Hublin

  4. Finnish Cancer Registry, Institute for Statistical and Epidemiological Cancer Research, Unioninkatu 22, 00130, Helsinki, Finland

    Eero Pukkala

  5. School of Health Sciences, University of Tampere, 33014, Tampere, Finland

    Eero Pukkala

  6. Department of Health, National Institute for Health and Welfare, P.O. Box 30, Mannerheimintie 166, 00300, Helsinki, Finland

    Jaakko Kaprio

  7. Institute for Molecular Medicine (FIMM), University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 20, Tukholmankatu 8, 00014, Helsinki, Finland

    Jaakko Kaprio

Authors
  1. Barbra A. Dickerman
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  2. Sarah C. Markt
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  3. Markku Koskenvuo
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  4. Christer Hublin
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  5. Eero Pukkala
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  6. Lorelei A. Mucci
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  7. Jaakko Kaprio
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jaakko Kaprio.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

*Lorelei A. Mucci and Jaakko Kaprio share senior authorship.

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Dickerman, B.A., Markt, S.C., Koskenvuo, M. et al. Sleep disruption, chronotype, shift work, and prostate cancer risk and mortality: a 30-year prospective cohort study of Finnish twins. Cancer Causes Control 27, 1361–1370 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-016-0815-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-016-0815-5

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