They rule out that unpleasantness or stress causes cancer

Stress, disappointment or losing a loved one are experiences that, among some people, are associated with a greater risk of developing cancer or other illness. A belief so widespread that many cancer patients wonder if their way of living or suffering had anything to do with their diagnosis.

An international consortium has just published the most extensive analysis to date on this question, with data from almost half a million people.

Neither grief, nor anxiety, nor loneliness

New research from University Medical Center Groningenin the Netherlands, indicate that psychosocial factors (which influence how a person perceives, interprets and reacts to their environment) do not affect the risk of developing cancer.

The findings are published online in Cancer, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society.

For this study, researchers examined data from the consortium Psychosocial Factors and Cancer (PSY-CA), an international research collaboration funded by the Dutch Cancer Society which analyzes data from prospective studies to evaluate whether psychosocial factors, such as perceived social support, loss of a loved one, marital status, neuroticism, and general distress, are associated with an increased risk of developing cancer.

In the analysis of 421,799 people who had psychosocial factors measured at a single time point, no psychosocial factors were associated with an increased risk of cancer overall, or with increased risks of breast, prostate, colorectal, and other cancers in which alcohol was a common potential causal factor.

The lung cancer exception: what’s behind it

Perceived social support, not having a current partner, and the loss of a loved one were associated with an increased risk of lung cancer, but most of these risks decreased after adjusting for known risk factors, such as smoking and family history of cancer.

“In recent years, PSY-CA has investigated a common belief: that poor mental health or other potential psychosocial stressors can increase the risk of developing cancer. Our findings do not support this idea.“concludes lead author Lonneke A. van Tuijl, a doctor at the University Medical Center Groningen.

What does explain the real risk of cancer

“In addition, many of the small effects observed are often explained by unhealthy behaviors,” he explains.

He tobacco, alcohol, sedentary lifestyle, obesity or family history They continue to be the risk factors with the greatest scientific support in the development of cancer. Unlike psychosocial factors, its relationship with the disease is documented in thousands of studies and is the basis on which public health systems in Spain and throughout Europe work to design prevention strategies.