Early socialization and development of cancer in later life. Biopsychosocial and psychoneuroimmunologic aspects

Prognostic Value of Negative Emotions on the Incidence of Breast Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of 129,621 Patients with Breast Cancer

Breast cancer (BC) is one of the common malignant tumors in women and affects 1.6 million new cases globally each year. Investigators have recently found that negative emotions (NEs) and their impacts have greatly influenced the incidence and risk of BC. The present study aims to provide an association between NEs and the incidence of BC with possible risk factors. A total of 9343 studies were screened; nine studies met all inclusion criteria that were considered for the meta-analysis. The qualitative studies were measured by the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale; the observational studies were included with relative risks (RR) and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CI). Besides the NEs and BC, the possible risk factors were evaluated. We analyzed data from 129,621 women diagnosed with NEs of which 2080 women were diagnosed with BC and their follow-up year ranges were from 4–24 years. NEs were significantly (p < 0.0001) associated with a higher incidence of BC with RR = 1.59, 95% CI:1.15–2.19, with other high-risk factors including, geographical distribution, emotion types, standard diagnosis of NEs, and follow-up duration. This study suggests that NEs significantly increase the risk for the incidence of BC, which can be supportive of the prognosis of the disease.

Attachment and Cancer: A Conceptual Integration

Cancer traditionally has been explained by the biomedical model; however, it is limited in comprehensively accounting for all factors in this disease. Recently, it has been suggested that a broader theoretical framework that includes psychosocial components in cancer is needed to complement the traditional approach. The purpose of this article, therefore, is to explore the utility of attachment theory as a biopsychosocial model of both development and health. Attachment, a developmental theory, explains how repeated interactions between caregiver and child in the early years establish lifelong psychosocial, physiological, affective, and cognitive patterns as well as enduring patterns of stress response to threat or illness. Despite attachment theory’s biopsychosocial foundation, the application of attachment security as a factor in physical health and psychosomatic medicine is relatively recent. The current work reviews attachment theory and psychosocial literature with regard to cancer and follows with a novel attempt to conceptually integrate both bodies of literature. A concluding integrative model of attachment theory and the type C behavior pattern is provided to illustrate potential links and integrative processes that may lead to disease resilience or vulnerability.

Oncology in neuroimmunomodulation. What progress has been made?

In 1987 in Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia, N.H. Spector named a new discipline: Neuroimmunomodulation. R. Ader called this new discipline psychoneuroimmunomodulation when the major emphysis was on its behavioral aspects. Neuroimmunomodulation (NIM) is devoted to the study of the interactions at different morphologic and functional levels among the immune, nervous, and endocrine systems. In fact, this science is the modern manifestation of an old science: in the words of B.D. Jankovic (1987), "Neuroimmunomodulation is a modern reflection in neurosciences and immunosciences of the ideas and experience of philosophers and ingenious observers of ancient Egypt, Greece, China, India, and other civilizations that the mind is involved in the defense against diseases." Twelve years ago NIM was regarded by many conventional scientists almost as a form of witchcraft. Today it may be the fastest growing area of biomedical science research in the world. Important clinical applications will not be far behind. NIM research has also progressed in the field of oncology research. Topics such as treatment of hormone-dependent cancer with analogues of hypothalamic hormones, the role of opioids and T cells in cancer, stress-cancer-immune connections, the anticancer role of melatonin and cytokines, immunotherapy of cancer, and the role of psychotherapy in cancer patients represent some lines of research that have been or are being investigated by scientists. Some areas remain to be thoroughly investigated such as the influence of physical exercise (sports), music (classical or modern), and/or relaxation techniques (e.g. yoga) on the development of human cancer. This paper reviews the role of NIM in oncology and provides some perspectives for further research and development of clinical applications.