Clock-cancer connection in non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma

SummaryThe universal 24-hour circadian clock has a profound impact on many daily biological processes. Disturbance of circadian rhythms has been implicated in the etiologies of many chronic illnesses, including cancer; with correlations most profoundly found among hormone-related breast and prostate cancers. Given the fact that circadian disruption can cause immune deregulation, which is so far the only established risk factor for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL), we hypothesize that altered circadian rhythms due to environmental factors and/or genetic variations in genes responsible for maintaining circadian rhythms may result in the deregulation of clock-associated biological processes such as immune responses and activities, and consequently influence an individual’s risk of developing NHL. Our recent findings provided the first molecular epidemiological evidence linking a major circadian gene to NHL and warrant further investigation. Confirmation of this hypothesis will further add to our understanding of the role of the circadian clock in lymphomagenesis and facilitate the development of novel risk and prognostic biomarkers for NHL.