Breast cancer chemotherapy disrupts sleep
Published: Sept. 1, 2009 at 3:57 PM
Repeated
chemotherapy treatments can result in progressively worse and more enduring sleep-wake activity rhythms impairments, U.S. researchers said.
Principal investigator Sonia Ancoli-Israel of the University of California San Diego said the findings were not surprising because
sleep disturbances are common in
cancer patients and 30 percent to 50 percent report insomnia symptoms.
Although most variables returned to baseline levels in the second and third weeks of the first cycle of
chemotherapy, circadian -- 24-hour cycles -- impairments were maintained.
"Results of this study suggest that our biological clocks are affected by
chemotherapy," Ancoli-Israel said in a statement.
"Our biological clock, or circadian rhythm help keep our bodies in sync with the environment."
During
chemotherapy, the biological clock gets out of sync, especially after the first cycle of treatment, but the clock seems to regulate itself after only one cycle. However, with repeated administration of
chemotherapy, it becomes more difficult for the biological clock to readjust," the study said.
The finding is published in the journal
Sleep.
n Vivo. 2010 Jul-Aug;24(4):471-87.
A possible mechanism for altered immune response in the elderly.
Mazzoccoli G,
DE Cata A,
Carughi S,
Greco A,
Inglese M,
Perfetto F,
Tarquini R.
Department of Internal Medicine and Chronobiology Unit, Scientific Institute and Regional General Hospital 'Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza', Cappuccini Avenue, 71013 S. Giovanni Rotondo (FG), Italy.
g.mazzoccoli@tin.it.
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Abstract
BACKGROUND: Reciprocal influences and bidirectional connections among the nervous, endocrine and immune systems, mediated by shared neuroendocrine hormones, chemo/cytokines and binding sites contribute to the maintainment of body homeostasis. The hypothalamus-pituitary axis may play an immunomodulating role and influence cellular immune responses by releasing various hormones and neuropeptides into the blood with direct modulatory action on the immune effectors, or by regulating the hormonal secretion of peripheral endocrine glands. Aging is associated with changes in immune function. The aim of this study was to evaluate circadian variations of some endocrine and immune factors in the elderly.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: Serum levels of cortisol, melatonin, thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH), thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), free thyroxine (FT(4)), growth hormone (GH), insulin-like growth factor (IGF) 1 and interleukin (IL) 2 were measured and lymphocyte subpopulation analyses were performed on blood samples collected every four hours for 24 hours from ten healthy young and middle-aged individuals (age 35-54 years) and from ten healthy elderly individuals (age 65-76 years).
RESULTS: There was a statistically significant difference between the groups in the observed values of CD20 and TSH serum levels (higher in the young and middle-aged) and CD25 and DR(+) T-cells (higher in the elderly).
In the group of young and middle aged subjects, a clear circadian rhythm was validated for the time-qualified changes of all the factors studied, with the exception of FT(4), IGF1 and IL2. In the group of elderly individuals, a number of rhythms and correlations with neuroendocrine hormones were absent or altered.
CONCLUSION: The results of the current study evidence aging-associated decrease of peripheral B-cell compartment, increase of activated T-cell compartment, decrease of hypophyseal thyrotropin secretion, altered circadian rhythmicity and altered hormone-immune cell correlations.
PMID: 20668313 [PubMed - in process]
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