With more than two million new cancer cases and 626,000 cancer-related deaths expected in the United States in 2026, improving cancer treatment remains a major public health priority. In the ongoing fight against cancer, researchers are not only developing new therapies, but also investigating how existing approaches can be delivered more effectively for individual patients.
A new University of Minnesota School of Public Health (SPH) study, the first seed grant focused on advancing the field of chronobiology, led by Assistant Professor Ivan Wu, will investigate whether considering a patient’s own biological rhythms could provide a more meaningful way to understand why certain treatments might be more effective than others.
“Previous studies suggest that the time of day a patient receives immunotherapy may be associated with treatment outcomes, but they’ve largely focused on clock time — whether someone received treatment at 9 a.m. or 3 p.m., for instance,” said Wu. “We want to take that a step further and ask where that treatment falls within each patient’s own biological rhythm, and whether better alignment between the two may ultimately lead to better outcomes.”
Specifically, Wu’s study will enroll 30 adults receiving immune checkpoint inhibitors. Participants will wear devices that track sleep and activity patterns, light exposure, and skin temperature around the time of an immunotherapy infusion, allowing researchers to compare each patient’s biological rhythms with the timing of their treatment.
Researchers will then link those measurements with electronic health record data to look for relationships with side effects, treatment delays or discontinuation, and other outcomes. As a pilot study, the research will not change when patients receive treatment; instead, it will lay the groundwork for future studies testing whether tailoring immunotherapy timing to a patient’s biological clock could improve care.
The project is supported by the Halberg Family Chronobiology Research Fund, which advances research in chronobiology — the study of how the body’s natural biological rhythms interact with health, disease, and medical treatment. The fund was established in 2019 by Julia and Francine Halberg as a tribute to their parents, Franz and Erna Halberg, whose pioneering work helped establish chronobiology as a field of study.
