Does stress cause cancer?

BMJ 1999;319:1015-1016 ( 16 October )

Editorials

Does stress cause cancer?

There's no good evidence of a relation between stressful events and cancer

Papers p 1027

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

In 1893 Snow presented what might be the first statistical summary of the psychological characteristics of patients with breastor uterine cancer.¹ Some 250 women with these cancers weredescribed as having a "general liability to the buffets of ill-fortune."Over 100 years later we still find researchers preoccupied withshowing whether stressful life events are related to cancer $---$ asin this week's study by Protheroe et al (p 1027).² Many clearlybelieve that life is more stressful than ever before and thatone consequence of this ubiquitous stress is disease, includingcancer. Sontag describes this as a metaphorical view of diseaseas the "outward expression of character."³ In more practicalterms, patients with cancer may believe that their disease resultsfrom too much stress and relatives may feel guilty for contributingto the emotional ill health of the patient. Such beliefs may alsohave a bearing on what people do about . . . [Full text of this article]

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Stressful life events and difficulties and onset of breast cancer: case-control study: David Protheroe, Kim Turvey, Kieran Horgan, Eddie Benson, David Bowers, and Allan House
BMJ 1999 319: 1027-1030. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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