Scientific evidence is still lacking in support of the widespread belief that the mental attitude of patients will affect their chances of surviving cancer.
“People with cancer should not feel pressured into adopting particular coping styles to improve survival or reduce the risk of recurrence,” declare investigators with the British Medical Research Council MRC Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, Glasgow, Scotland.
They reached this conclusion after reviewing 26 studies on the effect of psychological coping styles. These included fighting spirit, helplessness/hopelessness, denial, and avoidance, and survival from or recurrence of cancer.
It is a popular belief, the investigators point out, that psychological factors can influence survival from cancer, particularly breast cancer. “Such an association is biologically plausible, and several possible mechanisms have been proposed – for example, through immunological and neuroendocrine mechanisms. The evidence, however, is conflicting.”
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