Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Outdoor light at night and risk of liver cancer in the NIH-AARP diet and health study

  • Brief report
  • Published:
Cancer Causes & Control Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

Accumulating evidence suggests that light at night (LAN) disrupts circadian rhythms and may increase risk of liver cancer. However, there is no population-based study that examined LAN and liver cancer risk. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the association between outdoor LAN and liver cancer risk in a prospective cohort.

Methods

Residential outdoor LAN level was measured from satellite imagery in the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study, a prospective cohort of 451,945 men and women, 50–71 years old. Relative risks (RR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated using Cox proportional hazard models that adjusted for known risk factors for liver cancer and neighborhood characteristics.

Results

During an average 12.2 years of follow-up, 897 liver cancers, 603 of which were hepatocellular carcinomas (HCC), were diagnosed. Residential outdoor LAN was not associated with risk of liver cancer (RRQ5 vs Q1 = 0.96, 95% CI: 0.77–1.20, p trend = 0.771) or HCC (RRQ5 vs Q1 = 0.82, 95% CI: 0.62–1.07, p trend = 0.425).

Conclusion

No association between outdoor LAN and risk of liver cancer or HCC may in part be due to limitations in LAN assessment. More studies on the relationship between light intensity, duration, timing, and wavelength and liver cancer are warranted.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Data availability

Data can be obtained on request. Requests should be directed to the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study (https://dietandhealth.cancer.gov/), which has a protocol for approving data requests.

References

  1. Masri S, Sassone-Corsi P (2018) The emerging link between cancer, metabolism, and circadian rhythms. Nat Med 24:1795–1803

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Panda S (2016) Circadian physiology of metabolism. Science 354:1008–1015

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. National Toxicology Program (2018) Draft report on carcinogens monograph on night shift work and light at night

  4. Tahara Y, Shibata S (2016) Circadian rhythms of liver physiology and disease: experimental and clinical evidence. Nat Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol 13:217–226

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Filipski E, Innominato PF, Wu M et al (2005) Effects of light and food schedules on liver and tumor molecular clocks in mice. J Natl Cancer Inst 97:507–517

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Kettner NM, Voicu H, Finegold MJ et al (2016) Circadian homeostasis of liver metabolism suppresses hepatocarcinogenesis. Cancer Cell 30:909–924

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Xiao Q, James P, Breheny P et al (2020) Outdoor light at night and postmenopausal breast cancer risk in the NIH-AARP diet and health study. Int J Cancer 147:2363–2372

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Ohayon MM, Milesi C (2016) Artificial outdoor nighttime lights associate with altered sleep behavior in the American general population. Sleep 39:1311–1320

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Xiao Q, Jones RR, James P, Stolzenberg-Solomon RZ (2021) Light at night and risk of pancreatic cancer in the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study. Can Res 81:1616–1622

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Zhang D, Jones RR, James P, Kitahara CM, Xiao Q (2021) Associations between artificial light at night and risk for thyroid cancer: a large US cohort study. Cancer 127:1448–1458

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Mason IC, Boubekri M, Figueiro MG et al (2018) Circadian health and light: a report on the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute’s Workshop. J Biol Rhythms 33:451–457

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

Cancer incidence data from the Atlanta metropolitan area were collected by the Georgia Center for Cancer Statistics, Department of Epidemiology, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia. Cancer incidence data from California were collected by the California Cancer Registry, California Department of Public Health’s Cancer Surveillance and Research Branch, Sacramento, California. Cancer incidence data from the Detroit metropolitan area were collected by the Michigan Cancer Surveillance Program, Community Health Administration, Lansing, Michigan. The Florida cancer incidence data used in this report were collected by the Florida Cancer Data System (Miami, Florida) under contract with the Florida Department of Health, Tallahassee, Florida. The views expressed herein are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the FCDC or FDOH. Cancer incidence data from Louisiana were collected by the Louisiana Tumor Registry, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center School of Public Health, New Orleans, Louisiana. Cancer incidence data from New Jersey were collected by the New Jersey State Cancer Registry, The Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, New Brunswick, New Jersey. Cancer incidence data from North Carolina were collected by the North Carolina Central Cancer Registry, Raleigh, North Carolina. Cancer incidence data from Pennsylvania were supplied by the Division of Health Statistics and Research, Pennsylvania Department of Health, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania Department of Health specifically disclaims responsibility for any analyses, interpretations or conclusions. Cancer incidence data from Arizona were collected by the Arizona Cancer Registry, Division of Public Health Services, Arizona Department of Health Services, Phoenix, Arizona. Cancer incidence data from Texas were collected by the Texas Cancer Registry, Cancer Epidemiology and Surveillance Branch, Texas Department of State Health Services, Austin, Texas. Cancer incidence data from Nevada were collected by the Nevada Central Cancer Registry, Division of Public and Behavioral Health, State of Nevada Department of Health and Human Services, Carson City, Nevada. We are indebted to the participants in the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study for their outstanding cooperation. We also thank Sigurd Hermansen and Kerry Grace Morrissey from Westat for study outcomes ascertainment and management and Leslie Carroll at Information Management Services for data support and analysis.

Funding

The study is supported in part by the Intramural Research Program of the National Cancer Institute.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Public Health Sciences, Department of Surgery, Washington University School of Medicine, 660 S. Euclid Ave, Campus Box 8100, St. Louis, MO, 63110, USA

    Yikyung Park

  2. Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA

    Yesenia Ramirez, Linda M. Liao, Gieira S. Jones & Katherine A. McGlynn

  3. Department of Epidemiology, Human Genetics and Environmental Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX, USA

    Qian Xiao

Authors
  1. Yikyung Park
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Yesenia Ramirez
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Qian Xiao
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Linda M. Liao
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Gieira S. Jones
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Katherine A. McGlynn
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

YP and KAM designed and conceptualized study. YP, LML, and KAM involved in the acquisition of the data. YR performed data analysis. YP and KAM wrote the first draft of the manuscript. All authors contributed to the interpretation of results and critically reviewed the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yikyung Park.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

The study was approved by the US National Cancer Institute Special Studies Institutional Review Board.

Consent to participate

All participants gave informed consent by virtue of completing and returning the questionnaire. The study was performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary Information

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary file1 (DOCX 19 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Park, Y., Ramirez, Y., Xiao, Q. et al. Outdoor light at night and risk of liver cancer in the NIH-AARP diet and health study. Cancer Causes Control 33, 1215–1218 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-022-01602-w

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-022-01602-w

Keywords

Search

Navigation