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Severe life events raise breast cancer risk

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-08-26 23:52

JERUSALEM -- Young women who have been exposed to several traumatic life events are at higher risk for breast cancer, while happiness may have a protective effect, Israeli researchers found in a recent study.

Such adverse events would be severe tragedies such as the death or divorce of parents during the childhood or teenage years and the loss of a spouse, or moderate incidents like joblessness and a financial crisis, according to the study released by the on-line publisher BioMed Central.

Following a survey of 622 women, aged from 25 to 45, of whom 255 had been diagnosed with breast cancer and 367 were healthy, the research team found a clear link between their psychological outlook and risk of breast cancer, with the results showing that women who had suffered two or more traumatic events had a 62 percent greater risk, while optimists are 25 percent less likely to have developed the disease.

The researchers, led by Ronit Peled, Orly Siboni-Samocha and Ilana Shoham-Vardi of Ben-Gurion University and Devora Carmi of the University of Haifa, thus concluded that exposure to more than one life event is positively associated with the breast cancer, while a general feeling of happiness and optimism has a " protective effect."

The research team suggested that psychological stress could contribute to the increasing risk by modifying cell responses to environmental factors, while adding that the mechanism is still " not fully understood."

Meanwhile, the team called for further studies in this subject, and suggested that possible preventive initiatives should be developed.