Darkness Crucial For Breast Cancer Therapy

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BY Staff Reporter Jul 25, 2014 05:28 PM EDT

A recent study has revealed that complete darkness at night is a crucial part of successful breast cancer treatment, according to the Huffington Post.

Being exposed to light at night reportedly makes breast cancer resistant to the widely used formonal therapy tamoxifen, according to the new findings.

Researchers at Tulane University in New Orleans have reportedly found that exposure to light can shut off night time production of the hormone melatonin, which is "vital" to the success of the drug that is used as part of breast cancer therapy, according to the recent study that was conducted.

"In the first phase of the study, we kept animals in a daily light/dark cycle of 12 hours of light followed by 12 hours of total darkness (melatonin is elevated during the dark phase) for several weeks," lead investigator Steven Hill, co-leader of Tulane's Circadian Cancer Biology Group, said, according to the website.

Hill continued, "In the second study, we exposed them to the same daily light/dark cycle; however, during the 12 hour dark phase, animals were exposed to extremely dim light at night (melatonin levels are suppressed), roughly equivalent to faint light coming under a door."

He added, "Our data, although they were generated in rats, have potential implications for the large number of patients with breast cancer who are being treated with tamoxifen, because they suggest that night time exposure to light, even dim light, could cause their tumours to become resistant to the drug by suppressing melatonin production."

Although initial research has found that melatonin is important to breast cancer therapy, Hill noted that further research must be conducted.

"I'm not advocating people buy melatonin over the counter, there's not enough evidence. But they could make sure they sleep in a room that is completely dark or they could wear eye-masks to let night-time melatonin rise and take Tamoxifen right before going to bed, that would be the easiest way to see if it works," Hill told the BBC News website.