Summary
A total of 10 935 women with visual impairment were identified from the Finnish Register of Visual Impairment and followed up for cancer through the Finnish Cancer Registry for years 1983–1996. Breast cancer risk decreased by degree of visual impairment (P for trend 0.04) which suggests a dose–response relationship between visible light and breast cancer risk.
Similar content being viewed by others
Article PDF
Change history
16 November 2011
This paper was modified 12 months after initial publication to switch to Creative Commons licence terms, as noted at publication
References
Baldwin, W. S. & Barret, J. C. (1998). Melatonin: receptor-mediated events that may affect breast and other steroid hormone dependent cancers. Mol Carcinog 21: 149–155.
Blask, D. E., Pelletier, D. B., Hill, S. M., Lemus-Wilson, A., Grosso, D. S., Wilson, S. T. & Wise, M. E. (1991). Pineal melatonin inhibition of tumor promotion in the N-nitroso-N-methylurea model of mammary carcinogenesis: potential involvement of antiestrogenic mechanisms in vivo. J Cancer Res Clin Oncol 117: 526–532.
Breslow, N. E. & Day, N. E. (1987). Statistical Methods in Cancer Research. Volume II – The Design and Analysis of Cohort Studies, International Agency for Research on Cancer: Lyon 96–97.
Brzezinski, A. (1997). Mechanisms of disease: melatonin in humans. N Engl J Med 336: 186–195.
Czeisler, C. A., Shanahan, T. L., Klerman, E. B., Martens, H., Brotman, D. J., Emens, J. S., Klein, T. & Rizzo, J. F. (1995). Suppression of melatonin secretion in some blind patients by exposure to bright light. N Engl J Med 331: 6–55.
Feychting, M., Österlund, B. & Ahlbom, A. (1998). Reduced cancer incidence among the blind. Epidemiology 9: 490–494.
Hahn, R. A. (1991). Profound bilateral blindness and the incidence of breast cancer. Epidemiology 2: 208–210.
Henderson, B. E., Pike, M. C., Bernstein, L. & Ross, R. K. (1996). Breast cancer. In Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention, 2nd edn Schottenfeld D Fraumeni JFJ New York,Oxford University Press 1022–1039.
Pukkala, E., Verkasalo, P. K., Ojamo, M. & Rudanko, S-L (1999). Visual impairment and cancer: a population-based cohort study in Finland. Cancer Causes Control 10: 13–20.
Stevens, R. G. (1987). Electric power use and breast cancer: a hypothesis. Am J Epidemiol 125: 556–561.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
From twelve months after its original publication, this work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
About this article
Cite this article
Verkasalo, P., Pukkala, E., Stevens, R. et al. Inverse association between breast cancer incidence and degree of visual impairment in Finland. Br J Cancer 80, 1459–1460 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bjc.6690544
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bjc.6690544
Keywords
This article is cited by
-
Protective role of melatonin in breast cancer: what we can learn from women with blindness
Cancer Causes & Control (2022)
-
Sleep Disorders and Cancer
Current Sleep Medicine Reports (2016)
-
Nighttime light level co-distributes with breast cancer incidence worldwide
Cancer Causes & Control (2010)
-
Total visual blindness is protective against breast cancer
Cancer Causes & Control (2009)
-
Role of melatonin in the epigenetic regulation of breast cancer
Breast Cancer Research and Treatment (2009)