Fighting cancer is more efficient at dawn, study finds

Medical Xpress / University of Geneva / Nature ^ | Dec. 7, 2022 | Chen Wang et al

[ConservativeMind]

The ability of tumors to take hold and grow depends, among other things, on the effectiveness of the immune system in fighting them.

In previous studies, the team had shown that the activation of the immune system is modulated according to the time of day, indicating a peak of efficiency early in the morning in humans.

Now, the research team demonstrates that the rhythmicity of the immune system—and in particular that of dendritic cells, its key sentinels—has a hitherto unsuspected impact on tumor growth, as well as on the effectiveness of immunotherapeutic treatments. These results indicate that simply changing the time of administration of a treatment could tremendously enhance its effectiveness.

Temporal profiling of dendritic cells

The researchers administered an immunotherapy treatment at different times of the day to mice whose tumor implantation had taken place at the same time. "This therapeutic vaccine consisted of a tumor-specific antigen, very similar to what is used to treat patients. When administered in the afternoon, the beneficial effect was again increased."

What about human beings?

In order to find out whether these results were repeated in humans, the scientists re-examined the data of patients treated with cancer vaccines for melanoma. Melanoma-specific T cells in these patients responded better to treatments administered early in the morning, which corresponds to the human circadian profile, reversed in comparison with mice, which are nocturnal animals. "This is very encouraging, but it is only a retrospective study of a small cohort of ten people," Christoph Scheiermann points out.

[ConservativeMind]

I may have previously posted a study showing similar results, but this seems to be a new one.

Get your cancer treatment in the early morning.

[ConservativeMind]

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[Wally_Kalbacken]

Trick the immune system into behaving as if it is early morning all day long for several weeks (or months) and you might have something here.

[Vermont Lt]

My wife’s chemo started at 8:00 AM and lasted six hours. Maybe they should have started at 5.

[Veto!]

I don’t get up early, and hopefully won’t get cancer. If I do, will surely remember this advice and set the clock.