Poor clock management and cancer

Cancer Etiology For most people, sleeping and waking on a regular schedule is an aspiration rather than a reality. Unfortunately, it is becoming clear that chronic disruption of the circadian clock, or “social jet lag,” can pose health risks. Kettner et al. studied mice to explore how jet lag affects liver function experimentally by varying the times at which lights were switched on and off each week. Despite a healthy diet, the jet-lagged mice gained weight and developed fatty liver disease, which progressed to fibrosis and in some cases to hepatocellular carcinoma, a form of liver cancer. The livers of these mice showed marked dysregulation of metabolic pathways controlled by two specific nuclear receptors, FXR and CAR. Cancer Cell 30 , 1 (2016).