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Time of day shapes the success of a cancer treatment

Daily rhythms affect many aspects of mammalian biology. A discovery in mice that the activity of a key type of immune cell is shaped by such rhythms might have implications for clinical efforts to tackle cancer.
  1. Christian H. Gabriel

    1. Christian H. Gabriel is at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Institute of Medical Immunology, 10117 Berlin, Germany.

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  2. Achim Kramer

    1. Achim Kramer is at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Institute of Medical Immunology, 10117 Berlin, Germany.

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When is the best time of day to fight cancer? Cancer cells can arise in our bodies at any time, but, fortunately, they are almost always recognized and eliminated by the immune system1. Therefore, engaging these defences is an important strategy in many promising new cancer immunotherapy approaches. Writing in Nature, Wang et al.2 show that the ability of immune cells to recognize cancer cells and promote their removal is dependent on the body’s internal clock, a finding that might be exploited to improve the effectiveness of cancer treatments.

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Nature 614, 41-42 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-00068-3

References

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Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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