Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Feb 6:30:11.
doi: 10.1186/s40557-018-0221-4. eCollection 2018.

The relationship between night work and breast cancer

Hye-Eun Lee  1 , Jongin Lee  2 , Tae-Won Jang  3 , In-Ah Kim  3 , Jungsun Park  4 , Jaechul Song  3
Affiliations

The relationship between night work and breast cancer

Hye-Eun Lee et al. Ann Occup Environ Med. .

Abstract

Background: Since the International Agency for Research on Cancer classified shift work that involves circadian disruption as "probably carcinogenic to humans," there has been growing concern on the relationship between night work and breast cancer. In Korea, about 10-15% of workers are engaged in night-shift work, and breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in women. The purpose of this study was to review epidemiologic evidence on the relationship between night work and breast cancer.

Methods: We reviewed 21 original articles and 5 meta analyses on relationship between nightwork and breast cancer, and investigated the compensation criteria of Denmark.

Results: The association between breast cancer and night work has been reported by numerous epidemiologic studies, including cohort studies, case-control studies, and meta-analysis. However, a dose-response relationship has not clearly emerged among workers exposed to less than 20 years of night work.

Conclusion: Although there are some limitations to the epidemiological studies so far, further consideration of breast cancer cases in patients with high exposure to night work is needed to assess breast cancer as a work-related disease.

Keywords: Breast neoplasm; Carcinogens; Night work.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Not applicable.Not applicable.The authors declare that they have no competing interests.Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Straif K, Baan R, Grosse Y, Secretan B, El Ghissassi F, Bouvard V, et al. Carcinogenicity of shift-work, painting, and fire-fighting. Lancet Oncol. 2007;8:1065–1066. doi: 10.1016/S1470-2045(07)70373-X. - DOI - PubMed
    1. International Agency for research on Cancer . Painting, firefighting and shift work. Lyon: International Agency for research on Cancer; 2010.
    1. Park B, Ma SH, Shin A, Chang MC, Choi JY, Kim S, et al. Korean risk assessment model for breast cancer risk prediction. PLoS One. 2013;8:e76736. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0076736. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kolstad HA. Nightshift work and risk of breast cancer and other cancers--a critical review of the epidemiologic evidence. Scand J Work Environ Health. 2008;34:5–22. doi: 10.5271/sjweh.1194. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Stevens RG, Hansen J, Costa G, Haus E, Kauppinen T, Aronson KJ, et al. Considerations of circadian impact for defining ‘shift work’ in cancer studies: IARC working group report. Occup Environ Med. 2011;68:154–162. doi: 10.1136/oem.2009.053512. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources