Psychosocial Stress a Factor in Breast Cancer
Psychosocial stressors, in the form of fear, anxiety and isolation, have been linked to breast cancer, increasing the aggressiveness at which tumors progress.
Researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago found that breast cancer patients with the highest levels of stress had the most aggressive tumors. Stress plays a role in the autonomic nervous system, which is a contributing factor in regulating heart rate, blood pressure, muscles and glands.
The study consisted of 989 women who had been diagnosed with breast cancer in the preceding three months. The conducted survey to assess their stress levels and found that those women with higher stress levels had a increased incidence of aggressive breast cancer. They were also 38 percent more likely to have estrogen-receptor negative tumors, which do not respond as well to drug therapies such as Tamoxifen.
“It’s not clear what’s driving this association,” lead researcher Garth Rauscher said in a statement. “It may be that the level of stress in these patients’ lives influenced tumor aggressiveness. It may be that being diagnosed with a more aggressive tumor, with a more worrisome diagnosis and more stressful treatments, influenced reports of stress. It may be that both of these are playing a role in the association. We don’t know the answer to that question.”
Black and Latina women in the study exhibited higher stress scores, meaning a higher level of aggressive tumors. Racial disparity in women diagnosed with breast cancer is nothing new. A study published in July in the Journal of Clinical Oncology found that black women are more likely to die from breast cancer than whites. While as a group black women in the U.S. tend to be heavier than whites, researchers were unable to find a link between survival rates and obesity. It has been theorized that differences in tumor biology and health care access could be at play.
Psychosocial stress and breast cancer: the inter-relationship between stress events, coping strategies and personality
This quasi-prospective study of 2163 women attending a breast-screening clinic for a routine medical check-up indicates that certain types of coping strategies and personality dispositions predispose some women to an increased risk of developing breast cancer following the occurrence of a major life-event such as bereavement or other loss-related event. Regular exposure to stress situations appears to reduce the risk of a malignancy; experiencing a single, major life event was found to be potentially much more damaging, particularly if the individual was unable to externalize her emotions and obtain appropriate help and counselling.
Cary L. Cooper and E. Brian Faragher
University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology; and the Department of Medical Statistics, University Hospital of South Manchester (Withington), Manchester
Next to skin cancer, breast cancer is the most common type of cancer diagnosed among American women. According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, about 210,000 new cases of breast cancer are diagnosed annually, and an estimated 40,000 women’s lives are claimed by the disease each year. Annual mammograms beginning at the age of 40 and being repeated every one to two years is recommended.
Emotional Distress and Vulnerability to Breast Cancer
“You can’t tell me I didn’t have breakup cancer,” said Katherine Russell Rich in her book The Red Devil. She found a breast lump right after her divorce and was diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer. Elizabeth Edwards was helping her husband campaign for Vice President when she found her breast lump. You may know somebody with a similar story – after a period of chronic stress or significant loss, they found a lump and were diagnosed with cancer.
It may seem natural to associate negative emotions with breast cancer, but researchers are not sure if, or why, your body may be more vulnerable to cancer due to stress. And, not everybody who has stress gets sick – some people can de-stress or fight back, without risking their health.
Stress And Your Immune System
In 2008, a group of Israeli scientists studied a group of women under 45 years old. They found that young women who had endured two or more traumatic life events had a higher than average rate of depression and greater vulnerability to breast cancer. The younger a woman was when a crisis hit, the greater their risk for cancer.
It is thought that stress may affect your nervous, endocrine and immune systems. Chronic stress may weaken your immune system, leaving you with less resistance to disease. In the Israeli study, women who responded to stress with optimism and a fighting spirit seemed to have a protective emotional armor that raised their defenses against breast cancer.
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by Susan Brady