American
Cancer Society BRANDVOICE| Paid Program Jun 9, 2023,02:37pm EDT
By Natalie Burg
Since 1946, the American Cancer Society (ACS) has invested more than $5 billion in cancer
research. The nonprofit’s impact has been nothing short of extraordinary: Through an array of prevention studies
and research programs,
ACS has been a part of almost every major cancer breakthrough—including helping to halve the childhood cancer
death rate since 1970 and lower the total cancer death rate by 33% since its peak in 1991.
What’s next on
their priority list? Studying sleep’s impact on cancer prevention and survivorship. With the support of
tech-driven mattress company Sleep Number, ACS will use existing data from its longitudinal cohort studies
involving hundreds of thousands of participants across the U.S.—and potentially leverage Sleep Number’s
proprietary sleep data gathered by smart beds—to research and understand how quality sleep affects cancer
prevention and recovery.
The end goal? To
hopefully develop the first-ever evidence-based sleep guidelines to preventatively lower cancer risk and improve
sleep for patients and survivors.
“There’s a lot of
talk about sleep and … why this would be important for cancer patients, not only for quality of life but
potentially even in detection and outcomes,” says Dr. William Dahut, ACS’ chief scientific officer. “[This is] a
significant [opportunity] to get evidence-based information to make recommendations—beyond simply ‘everybody
should get enough sleep.’”
How They’re Uncovering The Sleep
And Cancer Connection
The connection
between cancer and sleep is understudied. “We understand the impacts of diet, exercise, tobacco use [and]
alcohol on cancer risk and outcomes,” says Rajasi Mills, Sleep Number’s vice president of health and
research. “Sleep is one of the
last frontiers that is yet to [be] explored.”
As a practicing
medical oncologist, Dahut has frequently heard about cancer patients’ sleep challenges. Whether it’s a
combination of medications or side effects from treatments, Dahut says patients often deal with pain and anxiety
that can result in a poor night’s sleep. “The next day, folks are worn out, and the things we know are important
for cancer care—nutrition, diet and exercise—[are impacted],” Dahut says.
It’s not a stretch to imagine how poor sleep might affect quality of life and health
outcomes for patients and survivors, as well as how it might increase healthy individuals’ cancer risk. But
when Shelly Ibach, Sleep Number’s chair, president and CEO (who is also the chair of the Minnesota chapter
of CEOs Against
Cancer), learned about the research challenges around establishing the links between cancer and
sleep, she saw an opportunity to leverage Sleep Number’s highly accurate and efficient smart bed technology that
collects longitudinal sleep data.
“We provide
authentic ‘in the wild’ data that is measured while someone sleeps in the comfort of their own home,” Mills
says. Many of the cohort participants likely already own Sleep Number smart beds, which have sensors that
measure sleep and biometric data like respiratory patterns, heart rate, sleep duration and circadian health—data
that can be evaluated over time, before diagnosis, during treatment and during recovery to uncover outcomes,
Mills adds. ACS is exploring how Sleep Number’s valuable sleep data will complement the rich data from its own
cohort to maximize the potential of these research studies.
Working with
Sleep Number’s innovative technology will unlock new research capabilities for ACS, says Dahut. Pairing the data
from the ACS cohort with what he calls “real-world evidence” from smart bed data, he says, “[will]
improve the recommendations that
we might make on our own.”
With Sleep
Number’s 2 million smart sleepers, Mills says the company has gathered over 19 billion hours of anonymized sleep
data they can use to study population-level sleep patterns. That level of insight only enhances the
research, she adds, catalyzing the
partners’ goal of improving sleep quality and
long-term health.
How They’re Already Making A Difference
ACS and Sleep Number are already helping cancer patients get better sleep. In 2021, Sleep
Number began providing its smart beds to ACS Hope
Lodges; the 30-plus Hope Lodge communities across the country provide patients and caregivers free
lodging during treatment.
“Sleep is vital
to recovery, whether that’s physical for a cancer patient or mental and emotional for a caregiver,” says Mills.
“Hope Lodges provide
respite and support for families in
treatment, and we’re honored to be a part
of the journey—helping them sleep
better away from home.”
Sleep Number has
also worked with ACS on fundraising and other prevention activities beyond sleep-related efforts, including
encouraging pro football fans to use a digital cancer risk assessment tool during a major championship game.
Dahut hopes their groundbreaking study begins to uncover some impactful data soon. Already,
ACS estimates that 45%
of U.S. cancer deaths are potentially modifiable when people follow
existing lifestyle guidelines for factors like smoking, diet and exercise.
ACS and Sleep
Number are optimistic that their sleep-focused study—and their guidelines—will chart a clearer path for patients
and survivors and become a tool to prevent disease.
“Hopefully, this
will give us information that we could [use to] actually inform subjects, patients, caregivers [and] family
members [on] what they could do in order to actually change their cancer risk,” says Dahut. “Because,
ultimately, that’s what this is all about.”
American Cancer Society
The
American Cancer Society has a vision to end cancer as we know it, for everyone. We're improving the lives of
people with cancer and their families through advocacy, research, and patient support to ensure everyone has an
opportunity to prevent, detect, treat, and survive cancer. Our global impact involves the support of more than
one
million volunteers and partners. From increasing access to quality care, to fostering cutting-edge research and
advocating on behalf of patients — ACS is here to be the most effective cancer-fighting organization. Together
with our partners’, we can advance health
equity and make
impactful change for Every cancer. Every life. Read Less