Night work and prostate cancer in men: a Swedish prospective cohort study

OBJECTIVES: Prostate cancer is the most common cancer and the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths among men, but the contributing factors are unclear. One such may be night work because of the day/night alternation of work and the resulting disturbance of the circadian system. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the prospective relation between number of years with night work and prostate cancer in men. DESIGN: Cohort study comparing night and day working twins with respect to incident prostate cancer in 12 322 men. SETTING: Individuals in the Swedish Twin Registry. PARTICIPANTS: 12 322 male twins. OUTCOME MEASURES: Prostate cancer diagnoses obtained from the Swedish Cancer Registry with a follow-up time of 12 years, with a total number of cases=454. RESULTS: Multiple Cox proportional hazard regression analysis, adjusted for a number of covariates, showed no association between ever night work and prostate cancer, nor for duration of night work and prostate cancer. Analysis of twin pairs discordant for prostate cancer (n=332) showed no significant association between night work and prostate cancer. CONCLUSIONS: The results, together with previous studies, suggest that night work does not seem to constitute a risk factor for prostate cancer.