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Sleep duration and mortality among breast cancer survivors in the Western New York Exposures and Breast Cancer (WEB) Study

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Abstract

Purpose

There is increasing evidence that sleep duration may affect breast cancer survival through effects on circadian function, influencing disease progression. However, further investigation of this association is needed.

Methods

In a population-based, prospective cohort study of women from the Western New York Exposures and Breast Cancer Study, we examined mortality outcomes with invasive breast cancer identified using the National Death Index. Cox proportion hazards ratios with 95% confidence intervals were used to estimate risk of all-cause (AC) and breast cancer-specific (BC) mortality associated with self-reported usual sleep duration with adjustment for age, race/ethnicity, years of education, body mass index (BMI), menopausal status, pack-years of smoking, tumor stage, and estrogen-receptor (ER) status. We further examined associations within strata of BMI, tumor stage, menopausal status, and ER status.

Results

A sample of 817 patients with breast cancer were followed for a median of 18.7 years, during which 339 deaths were reported, including 132 breast cancer-specific deaths. Those who reported shorter or longer sleep tended to have a slightly higher BMI, to be less proportionately non-Hispanic White, to report a previous history of benign breast disease, and to have consumed more alcohol during their lifetime. We found no significant associations between sleep duration and AC or BC mortality, including within stratified analyses.

Conclusion

Sleep duration was not associated with either AC or BC mortality including within strata of BMI, tumor stage, menopausal status, or ER status.

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Data availability

The datasets generated during an/or analyzed during the current study are not publically available but are available from the principal investigators upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported in part by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (P50-AA09802) and the Department of Defense (DAMD 179616202, DAMD 17030446). Nisha M. Nair was supported by the National Cancer Institute (T32CA113951).

Funding

This work was supported in part by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (P50-AA09802) and the Department of Defense (DAMD 179616202, DAMD 17030446). Nisha M. Nair was supported by the National Cancer Institute (T32CA113951).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health, School of Public Health and Health Professions, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, USA

    Nisha M. Nair, Heather M. Ochs-Balcom, Jing Nie & Jo L. Freudenheim

  2. New York State Department of Health, Albany, NY, USA

    Caila B. Vaughn

  3. Health Sciences, Vin University, Hanoi, Vietnam

    Maurizio Trevisan

  4. Università Campus Biomedico, Rome, Italy

    Maurizio Trevisan

Authors
  1. Nisha M. Nair
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  2. Caila B. Vaughn
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  3. Heather M. Ochs-Balcom
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  4. Jing Nie
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  5. Maurizio Trevisan
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  6. Jo L. Freudenheim
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Contributions

JLF contributed to the study conception, design, methodology, and funding acquisition. JN contributed to data curation and software. NMN completed the formal data analysis and data interpretation. The first draft of the manuscript was written by NMN and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nisha M. Nair.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Consent to participate

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Ethics approval

This is an observational study. The University at Buffalo Research Ethics Committee has confirmed that no ethical approval is required.

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Nair, N.M., Vaughn, C.B., Ochs-Balcom, H.M. et al. Sleep duration and mortality among breast cancer survivors in the Western New York Exposures and Breast Cancer (WEB) Study. Cancer Causes Control 35, 103–109 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-023-01774-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-023-01774-z

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