Does stress cause breast cancer?

Health Net: Does stress have a role in the occurrence of breast cancer. Researchers from The University of Illinois at Chicago, USA, to test it. The result, all components are referred to as psychosocial stress, including fear, fatigue, and feeling alienated, can interfere with the autonomic nervous system which helps regulate heartbeat, breathing and other vital functions of the body.

Then, the researchers met 989 women diagnosed with breast cancer in the previous three months and ask lots of questions to calculate their stress levels. The result, it is known that there is a relationship between stress and disease in women with the highest score of stress are more likely to develop breast cancer is active.

More specifically, the researchers found that women who experience stress 38 percent higher chance of developing cancer that is estrogen receptor-negative. These tumors do not respond to therapies that are intended to cut off the estrogen, which means that drugs such as tamoxifen, ralovista), Arimidex or otherwise, will not help.

After entering the other components, such as the woman's age and level of their cancer when diagnosed, it is known that women are more stressed still had 22 percent higher chance of developing cancer that is estrogen receptor negative.

The researchers also found that women with the highest stress levels had an 18 percent higher chance of developing high levels of tumor that is more active than low-level tumor. However, when the researchers put their age and level components of cancer, this relationship disappears.

In addition, breast cancer patients who were black or dark have this level of stress score higher on average, than those who were white.

However, the results of this study still leave questions about whether a woman with cancer who are already active under conditions of stress before they are known to have breast cancer.

Because very understandable, if diagnosed with cancer especially those active it will make sense of calm a woman who was originally to be disturbed. In a presentation made earlier this week at a conference staged by the American Association for Cancer Research on health disparities and cancer, the research team admitted it. They say that patients are stressed when they interviewed would be more stress before they know that they are sick.

It is unclear how these relationships occur, said Garth Rauscher. Maybe the stress level of patients affected by tumor activity. It may be diagnosed with active tumor, with a diagnosis of anxiety and stressful treatment, affect the results of this study. But it may also both have the same role in the relationship. We do not know the answer to that question.