Rotating Night-Shift Work and Lung Cancer Risk Among Female Nurses in the United States

A 28% increased risk of lung cancer is associated with 15 or more years of rotating night-shift work among women.

• 1,455 incident lung cancers were documented among 78,612 women over 20 years.
• The highest risk is noted for small-cell lung carcinomas, with a relative risk of 1.56.
• No increased risk was observed for adenocarcinomas of the lung, with a relative risk of 0.91.
• The increased lung cancer risk from night-shift work appears to be limited to current smokers, who showed a relative risk of 1.61.
• No association with lung cancer risk was found in nonsmokers.

AI simplified