The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis.
Biological rhythms, daily oscillations in physiological processes, make the morning body a functionally different creature from the same body at night. There are peak times of day for each organ’s cell division and metabolism, as well as core temperature and gene expression. Moreover, our illnesses are rhythmic, and our pathogens have body clocks. It makes for a major strategic advantage over disease, and the current resistance in the medical field — a misconception that timing effects are somehow minor — is no longer tenable.
Oncology is forever chasing ways to separate the enemy within from its surrounding tissue and reduce ghastly treatment side effects. Just as each of our cells has a circadian cycle, tumor growth is rhythmic. Some lymphomas see a peak in cell division late in the evening, whereas gut lining divides 23 times as much in the early morning as it does at night. In this case, chemotherapy in the evening targets the tumor while doing away with excruciating effects on healthy tissue. The point is that distance between healthy and diseased tissue does not have to be spatial if you can separate them in time.
The world expert on timed medicine — variously known as chronomodulated therapy or, more simply, chronotherapy — is French oncologist Francis Lévi. To avoid opening chemo clinics at all hours of night, Lévi enlisted a biomedical company to develop a new technology that could improve quality of life for anyone currently trudging into a clinic for treatment.
