Cancer, personality and stress: Prediction and prevention

Abstract

This paper reviews the history and present position of the theory that there exists a cancer-prone (Type C) personality which succumbs more readily to cancer, and dies more quickly after contracting cancer, than other types of personality. In particular, Type C is characterized by (a) a tendency to suppress emotions like anxiety and anger, and present a bland surface, and (b) to find it difficult to cope with stress, to develop feelings of hopelessness and helplessness, and finally depression. Modern work supports this theory quite strongly, both by controlled comparisons between cancer and other types of patients, and by prospective studies in which healthy cancer-prone subjects are followed up for up to 15 years and compared with subjects who are not cancer-prone, for mortality from and incidence of cancer. Intervention studies show that psychological therapy can (a) prevent cancer from arising, and (b) prolong life in terminal cancer patients. Theories have been developed to identify the way in which psychosocial factors can influence cancer production through affecting the workings of the immune system, and much experimental support has been found for these theories. There appears little doubt that psychosocial determinants constitute an important risk factor for cancer, and interact synergistically with other risk factors such as smoking, genetic influences, etc.