Stressful Life Events and the Risk of Colorectal Cancer

Jg, Courtney; Mp, Longnecker; Theorell, Töres; M, Gerhardsson de Verdier

doi:10.1097/00001648-199309000-00005

Cited by 49 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…The theory of an association between life events and illness was developed during the 1960s mainly by Rahe and Holmes (Holmes and Rahe, 1967;Rahe, 1978) who concluded in several studies that a cluster of social events that required changes in ongoing life adjustment was significantly associated with the time of onset of illness. The theory has been supported by findings in studies of recently experienced stressful life events; these studies demonstrated increased risks for a number of cancer types (Scherg and Blomke, 1988;Forsen, 1991;Kune et al, 1991;Courtney et al, 1993;Chen et al, 1995), various non-malignant diseases (Petrich and Holmes, 1977;Fisher et al, 1982;Temkin and Davis, 1984;Andersen et al, 1985;Glaser et al, 1985;Winza et al, 1991;Rahe, 1994) and increased mortality (Iversen et al, 1987;Moser et al, 1987;Bullman and Kang, 1994).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

“…Other types of stressful life events, e.g. major family problems, work-related problems and change of residence, have been associated in case-control studies with an increased incidence of colorectal cancers (Kune et al, 1991;Courtney et al, 1993). These studies rely on anamnestic information about life events from patients and control subjects, however, and recall bias is a possible explanation of the observed associations.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…a spouse, by death or divorce or other adverse life events has been associated with the subsequent onset or exacerbation of many types of illness (Petrich and Holmes, 1977;Fisher et al, 1982;Temkin and Davis, 1984;Anderson et al, 1985;Glaser et al, 1985;Winza et al, 1991;Rahe, 1994) and with increased mortality (Iversen et al, 1987; Moser et al, 1987;Bullman and Kang, 1994). The results of some case-control studies have been interpreted as showing that stressful life events contribute to the onset of cancer, a mutational disease (Scherg and Blomke, 1988;Forsen, 1991;Kune et al, 1991;Courtney et al, 1993;Chen et al, 1995). The prevailing hypothesis for an association is that stressful events lead to transient impairment of immune function in the organism, which in turn predispose to the initiation and progression of various pathophysiological processes, including infectious, allergic, autoimmune and neoplastic diseases (Ader et al, 1995).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Psychological stress, cancer incidence and mortality from non-malignant diseases

Johansen

Olsen²

1997

Br J Cancer

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Summary Psychological stress has been claimed to contribute to the onset of cancer and to increase mortality from a number of nonmalignant diseases. We investigated the effect of a genuine psychological stressor, i.e. cancer in a child, on the incidence of cancer and mortality from non-malignant diseases of 11 231 parents in a Danish nationwide population-based study. The children were identified from records in the Danish Cancer Registry for the period 1943-85; their parents were identified from population registers. Overall, 1665 parental malignancies were diagnosed from the date the cancer of the child was reported until 1992, compared with 1702 expected from national incidence rates, yielding standardized incidence ratios of 1.0 (95% confidence interval, 0.9-1.0) for all parents, 1.0 for mothers and 1.0 for fathers. No statistically significant deviation of the relative risk from unity was seen for any period of follow-up after the stressful event, and no excess risk was seen for any particular type of cancer. Moreover, a total of 2137 parental deaths were observed over the period 1974-92, compared with 2333 expected from national mortality rates, giving an overall standardized mortality ratio of 0.9 (range 0.9-1.0). No excess mortality was seen from causes associated with allergic illness, autoimmune conditions, chronic illness or changes in behaviour. Our data provide no support for the hypothesis of an association between psychological stress and the incidence of cancer or mortality from nonmalignant diseases. We conclude that the human organism is highly adaptable, even to extreme psychological stress.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Psychological stress, cancer incidence and mortality from non-malignant diseases

Johansen

Olsen²

1997

Br J Cancer

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“…As for melanomas, the role of immunocompromise has been noted recently. 47 Case-control studies have shown that stress has positive effects on several cancer sites 15,17,18,48 ; however, the validity of these studies has been challenged. 6 In our cohort-based study, we found elevated risk in 2 additional sites with an adequate number of cases for analyses: (1) in the respiratory tract, among accident-bereaved fathers and mothers as well as war-bereaved mothers, and (2) in uterine and ovarian tumors, among accident-bereaved mothers.…”

Section: Incidencementioning

confidence: 99%

“…[16][17][18][19][20][21] Present studies focus on the existence of pathways involving the brain and the neuroendocrine and immune systems. 4 These pathways link emotions and cognitions with body functions and disorders.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cancer incidence and survival following bereavement

Levav

Kohn²,

Iscovich³

et al. 2000

Am J Public Health

108

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A B S T R A C TObjectives. This study investigated the effect of parental bereavement on cancer incidence and survival.Methods. A cohort of 6284 Jewish Israelis who lost an adult son in the Yom Kippur War or in an accident between 1970 and 1977 was followed for 20 years. We compared the incidence of cancer in this cohort with that among nonbereaved members of the population by logistic regression analysis. The survival of bereaved parents with cancer was compared with that of matched controls with cancer.Results. Increased incidence was found for lymphatic and hematopoietic malignancies among the parents of accident victims (odds ratio [OR]=2.01; 95% confidence interval [CI]=1.30, 3.11) and among war-bereaved parents (OR=1.47; 95% CI = 1.13, 1.92), as well as for melanomas (OR = 4.62 [95% CI = 1.93,11.06] and 1.71 [95% CI = 1.06, 2.76], respectively). Accident-bereaved parents also had an increased risk of respiratory cancer (OR=1.50; 95% CI=1.07, 2.11). The survival study showed that the risk of death was increased by bereavement if the cancer had been diagnosed before the loss, but not after.Conclusions. This study showed an effect of stress on the incidence of malignancies for selected sites and accelerated demise among parents bereaved following a diagnosis of cancer, but not among those bereaved before such a di-

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History of childbearing and colorectal cancer risk in women aged less than 60: An analysis of Swedish routine registry data 1960–1984

Broeders

Lambe

Baron

et al. 1996

Intl Journal of Cancer

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Data from a computerised linkage between the Swedish Cancer Registry and the Fertility Registry were used to study the influence of reproductive history on the risk of colorectal cancer in women aged less than 60, in the period 1960 to 1984. A "nested" case-control design was used with 1,415 colon cancer cases and 733 rectal cancer cases, and 7,073 and 3,665 age-matched controls, respectively. Conditional logistic regression was employed to study the independent effects of parity, age at first birth and years since last birth on the risk of colorectal cancer. High parity was associated with reduced risk in women older then 50 years at diagnosis, both for the colon as a whole and for colon subsites. Women having had 5 children or more had an odds of colon cancer of 0.44 (95% confidence interval 0.24-0.82) relative to that of nulliparous woman. Contrary to the hypothesis advanced by McMichael and Potter (J. Nat. Cancer Inst., 75, 185-191 [1985]), which predicted a strong protective effect of parity in the proximal compared to the distal colon, we found the reverse. Increasing years since last birth seemed to be associated with a reduced risk of rectal cancer. A significant positive trend with increasing age at first birth was suggested with respect to distal colon cancer and rectal cancer risk. The mutually adjusted effects of the reproductive variables under study were similar to the unadjusted effects. Our data suggest that increasing parity is associated with a decline in risk of colon cancer but not rectal cancer, although the association with colon cancer is restricted to women aged 50 or more. The effects of age at first birth and years since last birth are not consistent or pronounced.

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Stressful Life Events and the Risk of Colorectal Cancer

Cited by 49 publications

References 35 publications

Psychological stress, cancer incidence and mortality from non-malignant diseases

Psychological stress, cancer incidence and mortality from non-malignant diseases

Cancer incidence and survival following bereavement

History of childbearing and colorectal cancer risk in women aged less than 60: An analysis of Swedish routine registry data 1960–1984

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