Isolation and stress contribute to breast cancer risk

by Poonam Singhal



Social isolation and related stress could contribute to human breast cancer susceptibility, research from a rat model designed at the University of Chicago to identify environmental mechanisms contributing to cancer risk shows.

The researchers found that isolation and stress result in a 3.3-fold increase in the risk of developing cancer among rats with naturally occurring mammary tumors.

The research establishes, for the first time, that isolation and stress could be a factor in human breast cancer risk, said Martha McClintock, a psychologist at the University of Chicago and an author of a paper in current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Researchers at the University have been studying social isolation in the context of breast cancer development after having found that that many women living in high-crime neighborhoods must deal with a variety of stressors, including social isolation. In particular, African American women have been noted to have an earlier onset of breast cancer, although total incidence is similar to women from other ancestries.

"We need to use these findings to identify potential targets for intervention to reduce cancer and other and its psychological and social risk factors," said McClintock, the David Lee Shillinglaw Distinguished Service Professor in Psychology and Comparative Human Development at the University. "In order to do that, we need to look at the problem from a variety of perspectives, including examining the sources of stress in neighborhoods as well as the biological aspects of cancer development."

The results of the study are published in a PNAS paper titled, "Social Isolation Dysregulates Endocrine and Behavioral Stress While Increasing Malignant Burden of Spontaneous Mammary Tumors." Gretchen Hermes, a former researcher at the University and now a resident in psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine, is lead author of the study.

The paper is part of a series of publications by University of Chicago researchers exploring the connection between social isolation and breast cancer biology, and part of an ongoing research program at Chicago where work is being done on cancer by researchers from a wide number of disciplines. That work was enabled by the University's Biopsychological Sciences Building, designed for such interdisciplinary research on behavior and biology and enhanced when the University received a $10 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to finance its Center for Interdisciplinary Health Disparities Research and is supported by the University of Chicago Cancer Research Center.

The study published in PNAS found that isolation led to a higher production of a stress hormone, corticosterone, among rats that were kept alone and subjected to the disturbances of colony life as well as stressful situations, such as the smell of a predator or being briefly constrained. Additionally, the isolated rats took longer to recover from a stressful situation than rats that lived together in small groups.

The study also suggests a causal relationship between social interaction and disease by showing that living alone first causes rats to have higher stress hormones, beginning in young adulthood, become fearful, anxious and vigilant and then prone to malignancy in late-middle age. The study further showed that the stress hormone receptor entered the nucleus of mammary tumor cells in isolated rats, where gene regulation occurs, something that happened less often in the cells of the non-isolated rats.

The researchers further found that rats living in isolation experienced a 135 percent increase in the number of tumors and a more than 8,000 percent increase in their size. The impact of isolation was much larger than the impact another environmental source of tumor formation-the unlimited availability of high-energy food.

In natural situations, estrogen and progesterone produced from ovaries play a role in the majority of naturally occurring mammary and breast cancers tumors. In the rat study, tumors naturally developed in late middle age, while ovaries were no longer fully functioning, further suggesting the role of isolation and stress hormones in cancer development.


(Poonam Singhal -- sub-editor compiled and published Isolation and stress contribute to breast cancer risk at HealthNewsTrack on December 8, 2009 sourced from University of Chicago - http://www.uchicago.edu/)

Breast cancer - recent articles and current news stories:

- Breast cancer funding restored by Komen Foundation to Planned Parenthood
- Susan G. Komen stops funding breast cancer programs at Planned Parenthood
- Additional breast surgery common after partial mastectomy
- Parabens in underarm products may lead to breast cancer in women
- Red wine drinking may reduce breast cancer risk in women

Breast cancer article/news source:

Read more health articles from University of Chicago and health articles from USA.

Breast cancer - search related terms:

Breast cancer, Cancer, Isolation, Mammary tumor, Relationship, Social interaction, Social isolation, Stress, Susceptibility,
Breast cancer books,

Subscribe to Health News by Email

List health news, Health organizations, Health news world, Glossary, Best health articles, Featured     Go to top

The information provided on Health Newstrack is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between a patient/site visitor and his/her physician. We comply with the HONcode principles for trustworthy health information, and Health News Track is hon code accredited, verify here.
About us, Site map Privacy policy, Disclaimer
© 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 HealthNewsTrack.com
1.99