Jan 28, 2014 10:31 AM EST By Jaleesa Baulkman, UniversityHerald Reporter

A disrupted sleep pattern could accelerate the progression of cancer because of its negative effects on the immune system, according to a new study the Huffington Post reported.

Researchers from the University of Chicago found that fragmented sleeps disrupts a cancer-fighting metabolic pathway - "a disruption that could be mitigated through drug therapy," RedOrbit reported.

"It's not the tumor, it's the immune system," study director Dr. David Gozal, chairman of pediatrics at the University of Chicago Comer Children's Hospital, said in a statement. "Fragmented sleep changes how the immune system deals with cancer in ways that make the disease more aggressive."

For the study, researchers split mice into two groups. One group of mice was allowed to sleep peacefully, while the other group of mice had their sleep disturbed every two minutes with a motorized brush that swept through their cages, the Huffington Post reported. The mice experienced these settings for seven days.

After four weeks, researchers found that the tumors in mice whose sleep was disturbed were twice as large and more aggressive than the tumors found in mice who had slept normally, Fox News reported.

Based on their findings, well-rested mice had more immune system cells called M1-type tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs), which are known to promote the immune system and stop cancer cells. The sleep-disrupted mice had more immune cells called M2-TAMs, which are known to actually hinder the immune system and promote tumors through blood vessel growth.

"In that setting, tumors are usually encased by a capsule of surrounding tissue, like a scar," Gozal said. "They form little spheres, with nice demarcation between cancerous and normal tissue. But in the fragmented-sleep mice, the tumors were much more invasive. They pushed through the capsule. They went into the muscle, into the bone. It was a mess."

Gozal said the study offers biological plausibility to the "epidemiological associations between perturbed sleep and cancer outcomes. "

"The take home message is to take care of your sleep quality and quantity like you take care of your bank account," he said.

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