A study by ETH Zurich highlights the significant role of circadian rhythms—our body’s internal clock—on cancer progression, metastasis, and treatment responses. Circadian rhythms influence key cellular functions like gene expression and cellular repair, and leveraging this knowledge through chronotherapy, the practice of timing cancer treatments to align with these rhythms, may enhance treatment efficacy and reduce side effects. The timing of cancer therapies can vary based on cancer type, sex, and genetic background. For example, certain cancers exhibit rhythmic peaks in metastasis at different times of the day, suggesting that administering therapies at optimal times could be crucial. Clinical studies support that chronotherapy minimizes treatment side effects and may improve survival rates, such as in melanoma patients treated in the afternoon. Additionally, a better understanding of circadian rhythms could refine cancer diagnosis by optimizing the timing of biopsy collection when relevant protein markers are most abundant. Overall, the authors call for further mechanistic research to maximize the clinical applications of circadian rhythm knowledge in cancer treatments and diagnostics. The study was published in Trends in Cell Biology and underscores a promising direction in cancer therapy and management.
