Health
Hidden factor in cancer treatment timing may affect survival, researchers say
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The time of day patients receive cancer treatments could have an impact on the outcome, a new study suggests.
New research published in Cancer, the official journal of the American Cancer Society, found that patients who received standard immunochemotherapy for extensive-stage small cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC) earlier in the day saw “significantly greater benefit” compared to those who got the same treatment later in the afternoon.
In the study, researchers from the Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Xiangya School of Medicine at Central South University, China, analyzed data from nearly 400 patients who were treated between May 2019 and October 2023.
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All patients had ES-SCLC and received first-line immunotherapy (atezolizumab or durvalumab) along with chemotherapy, according to a press release.
“Our study found that patients who received immunochemotherapy before 3:00 PM had substantially longer progression-free survival and overall survival,” lead study author Dr. Yongchang Zhang, medical oncologist and chief director at the Hunan Cancer Hospital in Changsha, China, told Fox News Digital.
The time of day patients receive cancer treatments could have an impact on the outcome, a new study suggests. (iStock)
“After adjusting for multiple confounding factors, earlier administration was associated with a 52% lower risk of cancer progression and a 63% lower risk of death.”
“It was quite surprising that simply changing the infusion time could lead to such substantial survival benefits for patients,” he added.
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The findings align with the idea of chronotherapy, which suggests that the body’s natural daily rhythms affect how the immune system works and how drugs act in the body.
This means cancer treatments may be more effective at certain times of day, likely because immune activity and drug processing change over the 24-hour cycle, the study suggests.
“This study should not prompt patients to delay treatment or panic about appointment times.”
Based on the findings, Zhang recommends scheduling immunotherapy infusions in the early part of the day.
“Research across multiple cancer types has shown that patients receiving immunotherapy earlier in the day experience longer survival,” he noted. “Our findings in non-small cell lung cancer, supported by both multicenter retrospective studies and prospective clinical trials, confirm this pattern.”
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Gilberto Lopes, M.D., chief of medical oncology at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, noted that previous, similar studies in non-small cell lung cancer have shown better outcomes when immunotherapy is administered earlier in the day, reinforcing the idea that the immune system follows circadian rhythms that influence treatment response.
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“In that sense, the results are biologically plausible and consistent with a growing body of evidence across cancers,” Lopes, who was not involved in the study, told Fox News Digital. “What is striking is that this signal now appears in small cell lung cancer, a disease where outcomes have been notoriously difficult to improve.”
All patients had ES-SCLC and received first-line immunotherapy (atezolizumab or durvalumab) along with chemotherapy. (iStock)
The study did have some limitations, as detailed in the published study. Most notably, the study was retrospective and observational, meaning it could not prove a cause-and-effect relationship between timing of treatments and outcomes.
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With this type of study, Lopes said, “investigators start with an idea and go back and review patient records.” In this case, other factors can have an impact on the outcome, according to the oncologist.
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“For instance, did patients who come early in the day have a better quality of life, performance status and socioeconomic status and that is what made the difference?” he asked. “Or something else we don’t know? These results need to be confirmed prospectively to eliminate known and unknown sources of bias.”
“The next step is prospective testing, but until then, this research invites us to rethink something medicine usually ignores: timing itself,” an oncologist said. (iStock)
Zhang also pointed out that this was a single-center study including only Chinese patients. “To obtain more definitive evidence, prospective clinical trials conducted across multiple countries and diverse populations are needed,” he told Fox News Digital.
Looking ahead, the researchers plan to conduct randomized trials to confirm these preliminary findings and pinpoint optimal treatment windows based on individual patients’ chronotypes (internal body clocks).
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“This study should not prompt patients to delay treatment or panic about appointment times,” Lopes cautioned. “But it raises an important, low-cost question for oncology systems: If scheduling flexibility exists, should earlier infusion times be preferred?”
“The next step is prospective testing, but until then, this research invites us to rethink something medicine usually ignores: timing itself.”
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A new report by the American Heart Association (AHA) included some troubling predictions for the future of women’s health.
The forecast, published in the journal Circulation on Wednesday, projected increases in various comorbidities in American females by 2050.
More than 59% of women were predicted to have high blood pressure, up from less than 49% currently.
The review also projected that more than 25% of women will have diabetes, compared to about 15% today, and more than 61% will have obesity, compared to 44% currently.
As a result of these risk factors, the prevalence of cardiovascular disease and stroke is expected to rise to 14.4% from 10.7%.
The prevalence of cardiovascular disease and stroke in women is expected to rise to 14.4% from 10.7% by 2050. (iStock)
Not all trends were negative, as unhealthy cholesterol prevalence is expected to drop to about 22% from more than 42% today, the report stated.
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Dr. Elizabeth Klodas, a cardiologist and founder of Step One Foods in Minnesota, commented on these “jarring findings.”
“The fact that on our current trajectory, cardiometabolic disease is projected to explode in women within one generation should be a huge wake-up call,” she told Fox News Digital.
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“Hypertension, diabetes, obesity — these are all major risk factors for heart disease, and we are already seeing what those risks are driving. Heart disease is the No. 1 killer of women, eclipsing all other causes of death, including breast cancer.”
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death for women in the U.S. and around the world. (iStock)
Klodas warned that heart disease starts early, progresses “stealthily,” and can present “out of the blue in devastating ways.”
The AHA published another study on Thursday revealing one million hospitalizations, showing that heart attack deaths are climbing among adults below the age of 55.
The more alarming finding, according to Klodas, is that young women were found more likely to die after their first heart attack than men of the same age.
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“This is all especially tragic since heart disease is almost entirely preventable,” she said. “The earlier you start, the better.”
Children can show early evidence of plaque deposition in their arteries, which can be reversed through lifestyle changes if “undertaken early enough and aggressively enough,” according to the expert.
Moving more is one part of protecting a healthy heart, according to experts. (iStock)
Klodas suggested that rising heart conditions are associated with traditional risk factors, like smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, obesity and a sedentary lifestyle.
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Doctors are also seeing higher rates of preeclampsia, or high blood pressure during pregnancy, as well as gestational diabetes. Klodas noted that these are sex-specific risk factors that don’t typically contribute to complications until after menopause.
The best way to protect a healthy heart is to “do the basics,” Klodas recommended, including the following lifestyle habits.
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Klodas especially emphasized making improvements to diet, as the food people eat affects “every single risk factor that the AHA’s report highlights.”
“High blood pressure, high blood sugar, high cholesterol, excess weight – these are all conditions that are driven in part or in whole by food,” she said. “We eat multiple times every single day, which means what we eat has profound cumulative effects over time.”
“Even a small improvement in dietary intake, when maintained, can have a massive positive impact on health,” a doctor said. (iStock)
“Even a small improvement in dietary intake, when maintained, can have a massive positive impact on health.”
The doctor also recommends changing out a few snacks per day for healthier choices, which has been proven to “yield medication-level cholesterol reductions” in a month.
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“Keep up that small change and, over the course of a year, you could also lose 20 pounds and reduce your sodium intake enough to avoid blood pressure-lowering medications,” Klodas added.
“Women should not view the AHA report as inevitable. We have power over our health destinies. We just need to use it.”
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Nearsightedness (myopia) is skyrocketing globally, with nearly half of the world’s population expected to be myopic by 2050, according to the World Health Organization.
Heavy use of smartphones and other devices is associated with an 80% higher risk of myopia when combined with excessive computer use, but a new study suggests that dim indoor lighting could also be a factor.
For years, scientists have been puzzled by the different ways myopia is triggered. In lab settings, it can be induced by blurring vision or using different lenses. Conversely, it can be slowed by something as simple as spending time outdoors, research suggests.
Nearsightedness occurs when the eyeball grows too long from front to back, according to the American Optometric Association (AOA). This physical elongation causes light to focus in front of the retina rather than directly on it, making distant objects appear blurry.
The study suggests that myopia isn’t caused by the digital devices themselves, but by the low-light environments where they are typically used. (iStock)
Researchers at the State University of New York (SUNY) College of Optometry identified a potential specific trigger for this growth. When someone looks at a phone or a book up close, the pupil naturally constricts.
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“In bright outdoor light, the pupil constricts to protect the eye while still allowing ample light to reach the retina,” Urusha Maharjan, a SUNY Optometry doctoral student who conducted the study, said in a press release.
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“When people focus on close objects indoors, such as phones, tablets or books, the pupil can also constrict — not because of brightness, but to sharpen the image,” she went on. “In dim lighting, this combination may significantly reduce retinal illumination.”
High-intensity natural light prevents myopia because it provides enough retinal stimulation to override the “stop growing” signal, even when pupils are constricted. (iStock)
The hypothesis suggests that when the retina is deprived of light during extended close-up work, it sends a signal for the eye to grow.
In a dim environment, the narrowed pupil allows so little light through that the retinal activity isn’t strong enough to signal the eye to stop growing, the researchers found.
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In contrast, being outdoors provides light levels much brighter than indoors. This ensures that even when the pupil narrows to focus on a nearby object, the retina still receives a strong signal, maintaining healthy eye development.
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The team noted some limitations of the study, including the small subject group and the inability to directly measure internal lens changes, as the bright backgrounds used to mimic the outdoors made pupils too small for standard equipment.
Researchers believe that increasing indoor brightness during close-up work could be a simple, testable way to slow the global nearsightedness epidemic. (iStock)
“This is not a final answer,” Jose-Manuel Alonso, MD, PhD, SUNY distinguished professor and senior author of the study, said in the release.
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“But the study offers a testable hypothesis that reframes how visual habits, lighting and eye focusing interact.”
The study was published in the journal Cell Reports.
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