Study Finds Stress Worsens Ovarian Cancer
(Reuters Health, 7/24/06)

Dr Anil Sood of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, and team, theorized that high levels of stress in the lives of ovarian cancer patients produces elevated levels of the VEGF protein, which stimulates tumor growth. The researchers tested this stress-cancer connection by inducing ovarian cancer in mice and then creating stress by isolating some of the mice in a small space for two or six hours. The investigators found that mice confined for six hours developed significantly more tumors and that the tumor cells had receptors for stress hormones, which promote angiogenesis, the growth of new blood vessels to feed the tumors. In addition, they linked stress toMMP2 and MMP9,  two other compounds that also sustain tumors. These findings suggest that the biological factors associated with chronic stress may promote the growth and spread of cancer.

(Nature Medicine, August 2006)