Sleep duration and risk of overall and 22 site-specific cancers: A Mendelian randomization study

Publication: International Journal of Cancer

Olga E. Titova, Karl Michaëlsson, Mathew Vithayathil, Amy M. Mason, Siddhartha Kar, Stephen Burgess, Susanna C. Larsson

7 September 2020


Studies of sleep duration in relation to the risk of site‐specific cancers other than breast cancer are scarce. Furthermore, the available results are inconclusive and the causality remains unclear. In this study researchers aimed to investigate the potential causal associations of sleep duration with overall and site‐specific cancers using the Mendelian randomization (MR) design.

The researchers concluded that this MR study does not provide strong evidence to support causal associations of sleep duration with risk of overall and site‐specific cancers. The suggestive associations of short‐ or long‐sleep duration with certain cancers merit further investigation in other large MR studies.

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