Stress, control, and cancer

The objective of this study was to investigate the connection between an accumulation of stressful life events and the onset of cancer. The life histories of cancer patients and their family members at John Muir Memorial Hospital in Walnut Creek, California were gathered by interviews and by written questionnaires. Comparisons were made between the responses of cancer patients and the responses of family and friends of the patients. Also examined was the effect of helplessness and hopelessness on the progress of neoplasm in patients with tumors. Cancer patients with a sense of control and patients who felt powerless were compared for mortality and prognosis. Patients and their family members were taught a relaxation and imagery exercise; the purpose of this technique was to help individuals relax, deal with anxiety and insomnia, and to ease pain. It was also hoped that the visualizations would enable cancer patients to marshal their immune function to fight their disease. On the basis of this study, it was concluded that stressful life events did not necessarily predispose an individual toward tumor formation. Healthy individuals appeared to have as much traumatic change requiring adjustment as those subjects with signs of cancer. Some people with an excessive amount of stress in their lives had cancer, some did not. Some of the cancer patients had relatively stable, uneventful lives in the decade preceding the study. More conclusive evidence was gathered to support the hypothesis that a sense of control improved a patient's chances of surviving or going into a stage of remission. Patients who felt in control of their lives and effective in directing the course of their treatment had better prognoses than those who felt that they were helpless in the face of their disease. All but one of the patients who died during the study exhibited hopelessness and loss of control before they succumbed to the cancer. All but two of the subjects expressed the opinion that the relaxation and imagery exercises were of some use to them. Some of the cancer patients experienced great improvement in response to treatment and in pain management. It was concluded that the exercises were of value in the treatment of cancer patients. It was suggested at the end of this study that more conclusive results than those generated by this study would be needed to prove a link between cancer and stress, and that one area of research might be a predictive study involving healthy respondents over a very long time period. Also suggested were laboratory studies of lymphocyte function in subjects who did relaxation exercises, those who practiced imagery, and those who practiced both techniques. More work studying leukocyte multiplication and effectiveness in conjunction with a sense of control was also called for. In spite of the small number of subjects, the conclusion was made that holistic therapy was an important tool in the treatment of cancer patients.