New study finds aggressive breast cancer, lack of sleep linked

First-of-its-kind study finds lack of sleep to be a new risk factor for aggressive breast cancers

Medical News Today: Cheryl Thompson, assistant professor of family medicine and community health, led a team of researchers that found a lack of sleep is linked to more aggressive breast cancers. “We found a strong correlation between fewer hours of sleep per night and worse recurrence scores, specifically in post-menopausal breast cancer patients,” Thompson said. “This suggests that lack of sufficient sleep may cause more aggressive tumors, but more research will need to be done to verify this finding and understand the causes of this association.”