The article making this claim is
"Circadian rhythm in prostate cancer: time to take notice of the clock"
Asian Journal of Andrology, 2023 Mar-Apr; 25(2): 184–191.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmc10069698/Since the article was published just a few months ago, it may represent an area where research is now receiving more attention than in the past, and some interesting conclusions on the topic of prostate and DST may be forthcoming.
Frankly, I hadn't been seeing all that much in the research literature on this topic, and maybe one would even wonder if an hour timeshift only twice a year would noticeably impact prostates all that much in some way. But it seems there are articles out there which claim that it does.
From this particular article's abstract:
"Disruption of the circadian rhythm plays a critical role in tumorigenesis of many kinds of cancers, including prostate cancer (PCa). Integrating circadian rhythm into PCa research not only brings a closer understanding of the mechanisms of PCa but also provides new and effective options for the precise treatment of patients with PCa."
"This review begins with patterns of the circadian clock, highlights the role of the disruption of circadian rhythms in PCa at the epidemiological and molecular levels, and discusses possible new approaches to PCa therapy that target the circadian clock."And more specifically:
" ... the incidences of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and PCa increase with age, and the circadian rhythms also deteriorate with age due to many reasons, revealing a possible relationship between the circadian clock and PCa."
"Increasing evidence shows the association between circadian rhythm disruption and prostate carcinogenesis as well. Both exogenous and endogenous factors can induce PCa risk-associated circadian disruption according to a large amount of epidemiological data and many consequent studies."
"Chronotherapy can also be applied to radiotherapy. Morning proton beam therapy for localized PCa was observed to significantly ameliorate the worsening lower urinary tract symptoms, compared with therapy around noon or late afternoon."
"As described in this review, disruption of the circadian clock strongly influences PCa initiation and development through changes in multiple regulatory pathways, including the cell cycle, EMT, tumor immunity, and the endocrine system."
"Although a relatively strong relationship between circadian disruption and PCa has been established, more mechanisms of how the circadian clock regulates PCa progression need to be elucidated, such as the exact molecular mechanisms of tissue-specific circadian gene expression and their impacts on prostate tumorigenesis."
"In summary, further research on circadian rhythm could help the prevention and treatment of PCa."The article is pretty technical, but I believe I understood enough of it to say that its point is that a sudden and significant change in a body's circadian rhythm is like, by analogy, a car going 60 MPH and then slamming on the brakes, so that everything is thrown forward, engine parts may be stressed, and even damaged some. The article seemed to be saying that, in a similar way, the DST change impact on the body's circadian rhythm affects, in a similarly violent way, the body's production and balance of certain hormones involved in the suppressive control of the growth of cancer cells.
So that with fewer suppressive hormones now in play, because of this "circadian shock," the cancer cells can then grow more freely.
And in support of that, from another article (boldface mine):
"Published data actually suggests a correlation between higher rates of prostate cancer, including aggressive disease, among shift workers and airline pilots. The genes that regulate normal cells and keep tumors from starting – or keep them in check if a cell mutates into a cancer cell – become dysfunctional when circadian disruption occurs. In a loose sense, without the orderliness of the rhythm, it’s as if the master clock fails to manage things and chaos results. Results from a population-based case-control study provide evidence for an association of genetic variations in circadian genes with prostate tumorigenesis.”Source:
https://sperlingprostatecenter.com/circadian-rhythm-heed-internal-clock-prevent-prostate-cancer/#:~:text=published%20data%20actually%20suggests%20a%20correlation%20between%20higher,cell%20%e2%80%93%20become%20dysfunctional%20when%20circadian%20disruption%20occurs.We'll see if in the future more research will be coming out to support the supposition that DST's effect on circadian rhythm does indeed turn out to impact the body's defense mechanisms against PCa, whether substantially or even if only by a little.
Again, maybe one has to wonder a bit if a disruption in circadian rhythm occurring just twIce a year, and the body presumably adjusts to it within a few days or weeks, really can have a significant impact on PCa carciniogenesis, but here are published articles maintaining that it can.
In the meantime it looks like it's going to be one more factor to consider in the determination of what drives PCa.
And if it turns out to be true, maybe just one more reason to do away with DST!