Large-scale study finds no link between psychosocial factors and cancer risk

New research 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. The findings are published by Wiley online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society.

For the study, investigators examined data from the Psychosocial Factors and Cancer (PSY-CA) consortium, an international research collaboration funded by the Dutch Cancer Society that analyzes 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 the development of cancer.

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 elevated risk of overall cancer, or 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 a higher risk of lung cancer, but most of these risks decreased after adjusting for known risk factors, including smoking and family history of cancer.

PSY-CA has spent the last years researching a commonly held belief-that poor mental health or other potential psychosocial stressors can increase the risk of developing cancer. Our findings do not support this notion."

Lonneke A. van Tuijl, PhD, University Medical Center Groningen

"Furthermore, many of the small effects observed are often explained by unhealthy behaviors."