Sleep disorders and cancer: State of the art and future perspectives.

A bidirectional connection between sleep and cancer exists; however, the specific associations between individual sleep disorders and particular tumors are not very clear. An accurate assessment of sleep disorders in cancer patients is necessary to improve patient health, survival, response to therapy, quality of life, reduction of comorbidities/complications.

Indeed, recent scientific evidence shows that knowledge and management of sleep disorders offer interesting therapeutic perspectives for the treatment of cancer. In light of this need, the objective of this review is to assess the evidence highlighted in the research of the last ten years on the correlation between each specific category of sleep disorder according to the International Classification of Sleep Disorders 3rd Ed. and several types of tumor based on their anatomical location (head-neck, including the brain and thyroid; lung; breast; ovary; endometrium; testes; prostate; bladder; kidney; gastrointestinal tract, subdivided into: stomach, liver, colon, pancreas; skin; bone tumors; hematological malignancies: leukemia, lymphoma, multiple myeloma, polycythemia), in order to evaluate what is currently known about: 1) sleep disorders as cancer risk factor; 2) tumors associated with the onset of sleep disorders; 3) targeted therapies of sleep disorders in cancer patients and new oncological perspectives following the evaluation of sleep.

Sleep medicine reviews. 2020 Nov 28 [Epub ahead of print]

Maria Paola Mogavero, Lourdes M DelRosso, Francesco Fanfulla, Oliviero Bruni, Raffaele Ferri

Sleep Medicine Unit, Istituti Clinici Scientifici Maugeri, IRCCS, Scientific Institute of Pavia, Pavia 27100, Italy., Pulmonary and Sleep Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle Children's Hospital, Seattle, WA 98105, USA., Department of Developmental and Social Psychology, Sapienza University, Rome 00185, Italy., Sleep Research Centre, Department of Neurology I.C., Oasi Research Institute, IRCCS, Troina 94018, Italy. Electronic address: .

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