This study indicates that psychosocial factors—which influence how a person perceives, interprets, and reacts to their surroundings—do not affect an individual’s risk of developing cancer. For the study, investigators analysed data from the Psychosocial Factors and Cancer (PSY-CA) consortium, an international research collaboration funded by the Dutch Cancer Society (KWF). This consortium analyses information from prospective studies to assess whether psychosocial factors—such as perceived social support, loss of a loved one, relationship status, neuroticism, and general distress—are associated with an increased risk for cancer.
PSY-CA has spent the last years researching a commonly held belief – that poor mental health or other potential psychosocial stressors increases the risk of cancer. Our findings do not support this notion. Furthermore, many of the small effects observed are often explained by unhealthy behaviours.
Risk factors
In the analysis of 421,799 individuals who had psychosocial factors measured at a single point in time, no psychosocial factors were associated with an increased risk of overall cancer. And no psychosocial factors were associated with increased risks of breast, prostate, colorectal, and cancers with alcohol as a common potential causal factor.
Perceived social support, currently not in a relationship, and loss of a loved one were associated with an increased risk of lung cancer. However, most of these risks decreased after adjusting for known risk factors, including smoking and family history of cancer.
Source: PsychiatryAmsterdam.nl