A simple shift in schedule could make cancer immunotherapy work better

A simple shift in schedule could make cancer immunotherapy work better Skip to content Subscribe today Every print subscription comes with full digital access Subscribe Now Menu All Topics Health Humans Anthropology Health & Medicine Archaeology Psychology View All Life Animals Plants Ecosystems Paleontology Neuroscience Genetics Microbes View All Earth Agriculture Climate Oceans Environment View All Physics Materials Science Quantum Physics Particle Physics View All Space Astronomy Planetary Science Cosmology View All Magazine Menu All Stories Multimedia Reviews Puzzles Collections Educator Portal Century of Science Unsung characters Coronavirus Outbreak Newsletters Investors Lab About SN Explores Our Store SIGN IN Donate Home INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM SINCE 1921 SIGN IN Search Open search Close search Home INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM SINCE 1921 All Topics Earth Agriculture Climate Oceans Environment Humans Anthropology Health & Medicine Archaeology Psychology Life Animals Plants Ecosystems Paleontology Neuroscience Genetics Microbes Physics Materials Science Quantum Physics Particle Physics Space Astronomy Planetary Science Cosmology Tech Computing Artificial Intelligence Chemistry Math Science & Society All Topics Health Humans Humans Anthropology Health & Medicine Archaeology Psychology Recent posts in Humans Health & Medicine A simple shift in schedule could make cancer immunotherapy work better By Elie DolginFebruary 12, 2026 Health & Medicine This baby sling turns sunlight into treatment for newborn jaundice By Elie DolginFebruary 12, 2026 Health & Medicine Antibiotics can treat appendicitis for many patients, no surgery needed By Laura DattaroFebruary 10, 2026 Life Life Animals Plants Ecosystems Paleontology Neuroscience Genetics Microbes Recent posts in Life Ecosystems Food chains in Caribbean coral reefs are getting shorter By Erin Garcia de JesúsFebruary 11, 2026 Paleontology Fossilized vomit reveals 290-million-year-old predator’s diet By Jay BennettFebruary 11, 2026 Health & Medicine Tell Me Where It Hurts sets the record straight on pain — and how to treat it By Laura SandersFebruary 10, 2026 Earth Earth Agriculture Climate Oceans Environment Recent posts in Earth Earth Earth’s core may hide dozens of oceans of hydrogen By Nikk OgasaFebruary 10, 2026 Animals Some dung beetles dig deep to keep their eggs cool By Elizabeth PennisiFebruary 4, 2026 Climate Polar bears in the Barents Sea are staying fat despite rapid sea ice loss By Rebecca DzombakJanuary 29, 2026 Physics Physics Materials Science Quantum Physics Particle Physics Recent posts in Physics Physics A precise proton measurement helps put a core theory of physics to the test By Emily ConoverFebruary 11, 2026 Physics The only U.S. particle collider shuts down – so a new one may rise By Emily ConoverFebruary 6, 2026 Physics A Greek star catalog from the dawn of astronomy, revealed By Adam MannJanuary 30, 2026 Space Space Astronomy Planetary Science Cosmology Recent posts in Space Astronomy This inside-out planetary system has astronomers scratching their heads By Adam Mann17 hours ago Space Artemis II is returning humans to the moon with science riding shotgun By Lisa GrossmanFebruary 4, 2026 Physics A Greek star catalog from the dawn of astronomy, revealed By Adam MannJanuary 30, 2026 News Health & Medicine A simple shift in schedule could make cancer immunotherapy work better A randomized trial shows morning immunotherapy extends survival without new drugs or doses Administering cancer treatments earlier in the day affects how well they rev up the immune system to fight tumors. Willowpix/Getty Images By Elie Dolgin February 12, 2026 at 12:00 pm Share this:Share Share via email (Opens in new window) Email Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X Click to print (Opens in new window) Print Listen to this article This is a human-written story voiced by AI. Got feedback? Take our survey . (See our AI policy here .) The idea that cancer treatment might work better at certain times of day has circulated for decades but has rarely faced rigorous clinical testing. Now, a randomized trial of 210 people with advanced lung cancer affirms that timing really matters, researchers report February 2 in Nature Medicine. The study is the first controlled trial to examine whether the timing of immune therapy affects patient outcomes, offering the strongest evidence yet that circadian biology — the body’s internal clock — can shape how well cutting-edge cancer drugs mobilize the immune system against tumors. Sign up for our newsletter We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday. “It’s a very impressive study,” says Chi Van Dang, a cancer biologist at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in New York City who was not involved in the research. “The data are very clear that time of day makes a difference.” Previous studies had hinted at similar timing effects, Van Dang notes, but those findings emerged from retrospective analyses of patient records and were vulnerable to confounding factors such as job flexibility, travel distance and patient frailty — variables that could skew who receives therapy earlier or later in the day. Randomization helps cut through those uncertainties by keeping all other aspects of care the same and varying only the timing of treatment. In the trial, clinicians randomly assigned patients with late-stage lung cancer to receive the first four cycles of their drug treatment — an immune-targeted “checkpoint inhibitor” plus more conventional chemotherapy — either in the morning to early afternoon or later in the day. Despite otherwise identical drug regimens, patients treated earlier went nearly twice as long without their tumors growing bigger or spreading — about 11 months in a typical case, compared with 6 months — and lived nearly a year longer on average, surviving roughly 28 months versus 17 months in the late-treatment group. “Just adjusting the infusion time can lead to better survival outcomes,” says Yongchang Zhang, a thoracic oncologist at Hunan Cancer Hospital in Changsha, China. Blood tests from the study offered hints as to why. Patients treated earlier in the day showed signs of a more active immune response, with higher levels of cancer-fighting T cells than those treated later. Notably, however, earlier dosing did not increase rates of immune-related side effects, suggesting that timing may boost the immune system’s attack on tumors without raising the risk of autoimmune reactions. Taken together, the results point to a simple scheduling change as a low-cost way to improve outcomes for cancer patients without altering drugs, doses or other treatment parameters. The work could also influence how future cancer drugs are tested in clinical trials, with investigators del