Stress and breast cancer.

T J Priestman,C Bradshaw,S G Priestman

doi:10.1038/bjc.1985.71

Abstract

In order to assess whether exposure to stress was associated with an increased risk of breast cancer, 100 women presenting with carcinoma of the breast completed a standard life events inventory documenting life stresses experienced during the previous three years. The same questionnaire was completed by 100 women presenting with benign breast lumps and 100 apparently healthy controls. Both groups of patients with breast disease also completed the Eysenck personality inventory. There was no difference in the number of stressful life events experienced by the patients with benign and malignant breast lesions and the nature and severity of those stresses encountered were similar for both groups. The personality indices were also the same for both groups. The controls, however, recorded significantly higher levels of stress exposure than the patients with breast disease. On the basis of this series, there is no evidence to support the hypothesis that stress predisposes to breast cancer development.

Highlights

Consecutive patients attending the various clinics were included in the study, the single element of selection being that only women between 25 and 60 years of age were interviewed
Overall there was no difference in the number of life events (LEs) or total of LCUs between patients with benign breast lumps and mammary carcinoma, but the control group showed significantly higher scores for both these indices (Table II)
A standard method for retrospective measurement of stressful experiences and, they are open to criticism (Rabkin & Strueving, 1976), they remain one of the most widely used and readily reproducible systems for stress assessment

Summary

Methods

Three groups of subjects were included in the present series: women with carcinoma of the breast, women with benign lumps and an, apparently, Correspondence: T.J. It became apparent that it would be impossible to secure an adequate number of patients with carcinomas within the one year time frame of the study and so those women attending a regional radiotherapy department for treatment of stage I and II breast cancers, diagnosed within the previous .three months, were included. This meant that, for a proportion of patients, the diagnosis was known at the time of interview. Healthy controls were drawn from paramedical and ancillary staff at various hospitals and clinics within the West Midlands region as well as members of the general public chosen at random, and drawn principally from friends and relatives of patients attending the various clinics

Results

Discussion

Conclusion