Today, physicians are paying more attention to how cancer patients are doing emotionally, in part, because of the growing amount of research being done in the field of Psycho-Oncology – the study of how emotional and social well-being affect the health and quality of life of people living with cancer.

Dr. Deidre Pereira, a Research Assistant Professor in the Departments of Psychology and Obstetrics-Gynecology at the University of Miami, says that some of the most exciting Psycho-Oncology research being conducted today is examining how psychological well-being affects stress hormone production and immune functioning in people with cancer. Stress hormones, like adrenaline, fuel “fight-or-flight” responses during highly stressful situations.

“This is an important area to study,” she notes, “because high levels of stress hormones and poor immune functioning can affect the risk and progression of some important cancers, like certain gynecologic cancers.”

Dr. Susan Lutgendorf and colleagues at the University of Iowa are studying the relationship between these factors in women with ovarian cancer. Using ovarian cancer cell lines in the laboratory, Dr. Lutgendorf has found that stress hormones produce increases in vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). VEGF is a substance made by cells that causes the formation of new blood vessels, a process that is necessary for tumor growth. “This suggests that stress and stress hormone production may affect the progression of ovarian cancer.”

Ms. Erin Costanzo, also from the University of Iowa, has demonstrated that ovarian cancer patients who have greater social support and better functional well-being have lower interleukin-6 levels in the blood and in the fluid surrounding ovarian cancer tumors. High interleukin-6 is thought to be a key factor in the spread of ovarian cancer to other parts of the body, a serious sign of disease progression.

Similar mind-body relationships have been found in men with prostate cancer. Dr. Frank Penedo and colleagues at the University of Miami have found that prostate cancer patients who are highly optimistic have better immune functioning because they are less likely to suppress their anger. “In men with prostate cancer, high optimism was related to both less anger suppression and better natural killer cell cytotoxicity – the potential of natural killer cells to ‘lyse’ or kill bad cells, such as cancer cells,” he reported. “This means that we may be able to keep prostate cancer patients’ immune systems healthy by encouraging patients to explore a positive outlook on life and their emotions, even the negative ones. We have developed a psychosocial intervention to test this and other hypotheses in prostate cancer patients.”

Psychosocial interventions show promise as an adjunct to standard medical care in patients with cancer. Dr. Irene Korstjens and colleagues at the Universiteit Maastricht in the Netherlands have found that cancer patients who underwent a psychosocial intervention experienced significant improvements in physical, emotional, and social functioning, as well as significant decreases in fatigue and medical consumption by the end of the intervention.

Interventions may also improve health and quality of life in individuals at risk for cancer. Dr. Pereira and colleagues are examining how a 10-week psychosocial group intervention affects these factors in HIV+ women at risk for cervical cancer. Their intervention targets improving health knowledge, mood, coping, and social support. Preliminary results suggest the intervention improves positive affect and social support in HIV+ women with abnormal Pap smears. Their future research will test whether these factors are