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Link Between Stress and Breast Cancer?

A new study shows that black and Hispanic women with breast cancer may suffer more stress than white women, and the extra stress could be linked to more tumors. Study authors did caution that the research is still in the preliminary stages and that the research was not able to provide insight into whether the women’s stress levels were already high before being diagnosed with breast cancer, or whether the increase was caused by the cancer itself.

Despite the uncertainty, the findings point to a possible explanation why breast cancer is generally worse in black and Hispanic patients. Lead author Garth H. Rauscher stated, “One possible reason for that, among others, could be differences in the role of stress in influencing the development of breast cancer.” Rauscher is an associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s School of Public Health.

Researchers studied 989 breast cancer patients who had been recently diagnosed with the disease. Within the first two or three months from diagnosis, the women responded to surveys about their stress levels and were asked about other issues such as anxiety, fear and loneliness. The researchers also used medical test results to examine the aggressiveness of the women’s cancer and tumors.

11% of 397 white women surveyed had reached a level of stress that would be considered elevated. Stress levels were about twice as high for the two minority groups: 24% of the 181 Hispanic women and 22% of the 411 black women reported elevated stress levels. Other minority groups were not included in the study.

According to Rauscher, more research is needed to determine how stress might be linked to the aggressiveness of tumors. “If we’d interviewed these women one year or five years or 10 years prior to diagnosis, would these same women have reported greater levels of stress than their counterparts in the study?” he wondered.

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