Reply #3: Glad someone posted this [View All]

I was thinking about this story all morning.

As the OP points out, similar results were obtained several years ago in a study of nurses, and speculation was that this had to do with hormonal suppression (ie, suppression of melatonin or scattered neurotransmitters), possibly produced by working under fluorescent or other lights, most probably at a time during the 24 hour cycle when the body most wants to shut down and recuperate.

It would be fascinating to see a study simply of "night owls"--people who are quasi nocturnal out of habit or preference, rather than people who are working stressful jobs at night, and see if there is any correlation between being up at night and cancer vs. working and cancer.