Evaluating the association between artificial light-at-night exposure and breast and prostate cancer risk in Spain (MCC-Spain study).

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Night shift work, exposure to light at night (ALAN) and circadian disruption may increase the risk of hormone-dependent cancers. OBJECTIVES: We evaluated the association of exposure to ALAN during sleeping time with breast and prostate cancer in a population based multicase-control study (MCC-Spain), among subjects who had never worked at night. We evaluated chronotype, a characteristic that may relate to adaptation to light at night. METHODS: We enrolled 1,219 breast cancer cases, 1,385 female controls, 623 prostate cancer cases, and 879 male controls from 11 Spanish regions in 2008-2013. Indoor ALAN information was obtained through questionnaires. Outdoor ALAN was analyzed using images from the International Space Station (ISS) available for Barcelona and Madrid for 2012-2013, including data of remotely sensed upward light intensity and blue light spectrum information for each geocoded longest residence of each MCC-Spain subject. RESULTS: Among Barcelona and Madrid participants with information on both indoor and outdoor ALAN, exposure to outdoor ALAN in the blue light spectrum was associated with breast cancer [adjusted odds ratio (OR) for highest vs. lowest tertile, OR=1.47; 95% CI: 1.00, 2.17] and prostate cancer (OR=2.05; 95% CI: 1.38, 3.03). In contrast, those exposed to the highest versus lowest intensity of outdoor ALAN were more likely to be controls than cases, particularly for prostate cancer. Compared with those who reported sleeping in total darkness, men who slept in "quite illuminated" bedrooms had a higher risk of prostate cancer (OR=2.79; 95% CI: 1.55, 5.04), whereas women had a slightly lower risk of breast cancer (OR=0.77; 95% CI: 0.39, 1.51). CONCLUSION: Both prostate and breast cancer were associated with high estimated exposure to outdoor ALAN in the blue-enriched light spectrum. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP1837.The study was partially funded by the Accion Transversal del Cancer, approved by the Spanish Ministry Council on 11 October 2007, by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III-FEDER (PI08/1770, PI08/0533, PI08/1359, PS09/00773-Cantabria, PS09/01286-León, PS09/01903-Valencia, PS09/02078-Huelva, PS09/01662-Granada, PI11/01889-FEDER, PI11/02213, PI12/00488, PI12/00265, PI12/01270, PI12/00715, PI14/0613), by the Fundación Marqués de Valdecilla (API 10/09), by the ICGC International Cancer Genome Consortium CLL [the ICGC CLL-Genome Project is funded by Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO) through the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII) and Red Temática de Investigación del Cáncer (RTICC) del ISCIII (RD12/0036/0036)], by the Junta de Castilla y León (LE22A10-2), by the Consejería de Salud of the Junta de Andalucía (PI-0571-2009, PI-0306-2011, salud201200057018tra), by the Conselleria de Sanitat of the Generalitat Valenciana (AP_061/10), by the Regional Government of the Basque Country, by the Consejería de Sanidad de la Región de Murcia, by the European Commission grants FOOD-CT-2006-036224-HIWATE, by the Spanish Association Against Cancer (AECC) Scientific Foundation, by the Catalan Government–Agency for Management of University and Research Grants (AGAUR) grants 2014SGR647 and 2014SGR850, by the Fundación Caja de Ahorros de Asturias, and by the University of Oviedo. ISGlobal is a member of the Centres de Recerca de Catalunya (CERCA) Programme, Generalitat de Catalunya. This research was also supported in part by the STARS4ALL project funded by the H2020-ICT-2015-688135 program of the European Union, the ORISON project funded by the H2020-INFRASUPP-2015-2 program of the European Union, and through the resources of researchers and collaborators of the Cities at Night project. J.G.-P. was funded by the Scientific Foundation of the Spanish Association against Cancer (Fundación Científica de la Asociación Española Contra el Cáncer (AECC), EVP-1178/14)