ROCHESTER, N.Y., Sept. 27 U.S. women diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer, who experience traumatic or stressful events, see their cancer recur twice as fast as other women.
First author Oxana Palesh of the University of Rochester Medical Center and colleagues from Stanford University School of Medicine in California interviewed 94 women from the San Francisco area with metastatic or recurrent breast cancer and categorized their life experiences as either traumatic or stressful.The researchers compared them with a control group of women who had not faced similar situations.
Childhood sexual abuse, rape, suicide of a family member or life-threatening injury were considered traumatic experiences, while adoption, parent's death, living with their mother-in-law, earthquake, divorce or having a family member imprisoned were considered stressful events.
The study, published in the Journal of Psychosomatic Research, found the 39 women who reported traumatic events had a median disease-free interval of 2.5 years; while the 27 women who had experienced stressful situations had a median disease-free interval of 37 months. The 28 women who reported no stress or trauma in their history had a median disease-free interval of 62 months, or more than five years.
Copyright 2007 by UPI
