Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-vmclg Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-18T00:02:54.468Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Psychological response to cancer and survival1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

S. Greer
S. Greer*
Affiliation:
From the CRC Psychological Medicine Group, Royal Marsden Hospital, Sutton
*
2Address for correspondence: Dr S. Greer, CRC Psychological Medicine Group, The Royal Marsden Hospital, Sutton, Surrey SM2 5PT.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Synopsis

The hypothesis is advanced that the psychological stance which patients adopt in response to cancer can, in some cases, influence the course of their disease. This hypothesis is examined in the light of the author's 15-year follow-up study of women with early breast cancer and of other pertinent studies. The available evidence supports the hypothesis in respect of certain earlystage non-metastatic cancers.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 21 , Issue 1 , February 1991 , pp. 43 - 49
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

1

Lecture delivered at the Cancer and Mind Conference, London, February 1990.

References

Angell, M. (1985). Disease as a reflection of the psyche. New England Journal of Medicine 212, 1570–1572.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Antoni, M. H. & Goodkin, K. (1988). Host moderator variables in the promotion of cervical neoplasia. I. Personality facets. Journal of Psychosomatic Research 32, 327–338.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Beck, A. T., Weismann, A., Lester, D. & Trexler, L. (1974). The measurement of pessimism. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 42, 861–865.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Butler, J. A., Bretsky, S., Menendez-Botet, C. & Kinne, D. W. (1985). Estrogen receptor protein of breast cancer as a predictor of recurrence. Cancer 55, 1178–1181.3.0.CO;2-U>CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cassileth, B. R., Lusk, E. J., Miller, D. S., Brown, L. L. & Miller, C. (1985). Psychological correlates of survival in advanced malignant disease. New England Journal of Medicine 312, 1551–1555.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chevallier, B., Heintzmann, F., Mosseri, V., Dauce, J. P., Bastit, P., Graic, Y., Brunella, P., Basuyau, J. P., Comoz, M. & Asselain, B. (1988). Prognostic value of estrogen and progesterone receptors in operable breast cancer. Cancer 62, 2517–2524.3.0.CO;2-9>CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cox, D. R. (1972). Regression models and life tables. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, 34B, 187–202.Google Scholar
Dean, C. & Surtees, P. G. (1989). Do psychological factors predict survival in breast cancer? Journal of Psychosomatic Research 33, 561–569.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Derogatis, L. (1975). The Affect Balance Scale. Clinical Psychometric Research: Baltimore.Google Scholar
Di Clemente, R. J. & Temoshok, L. (1985). Psychological adjustment to having cutaneous malignant melanoma as a predictor of followup clinical status. Psychosomatic Medicine 47, 81.Google Scholar
Engel, G. L. (1977). The need for a new medical model: a challenge for biomedicine. Science 196, 129–136.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fentiman, I. S., Cuzick, J., Mills, R. R. & Hayward, J. L. (1984). Which patients are cured of breast cancer? British Medical Journal 289, 1108–1111.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goodkin, K., Antoni, M. H. & Blaney, P. H. (1986). Stress and hopelessness in the promotion of cervical intra-epithelia neoplasia to invasive squamous cell carcinoma of the cervix. Journal of Psychosomatic Research 30, 67–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greer, S. & Watson, M. (1987). Mental adjustment to cancer: its measurement and prognostic importance. Cancer Surveys 6, 439–453.Google ScholarPubMed
Greer, S., Morris, T. & Pettingale, K. W. (1979). Psychological response to breast cancer: effect on outcome. Lancet ii, 785–787.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greer, S., Moorey, S. & Watson, M. (1989). Patients' adjustment to cancer: the Mental Adjustment to Cancer (MAC) scale vs clinical ratings. Journal of Psychosomatic Research 33, 373–377.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Greer, S., Morris, T., Pettingale, K. W. & Haybittle, J. L. (1990). Psychological response to breast cancer and 15 year outcome. Lancet i, 49–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hahnel, R. (1981). Oestrogen receptor status, breast cancer growth and prognosis. Reviews on Endocrine-Related Cancer 8, 5–11.Google Scholar
Hislop, G. T., Waxler, N. E., Coldman, A. J., Elwood, J. M. & Kan, L. (1987). The Prognostic significance of psychosocial factors in women with breast cancer. Journal of Chronic Diseases 40, 729–735.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jamison, R. N., Burish, T. G. & Wallston, K. A. (1987). Psychogenic factors in predicting survival of breast cancer patients. Journal of Clinical Oncology 5 768–772.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jensen, M. R. (1987). Psychobiological factors predicting the course of cancer. Journal of Personality 55, 329–342.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levy, S. M. & Wise, B. D. (1988). Psychosocial risk factors and cancer progression. In Stress and Breast Cancer (ed. Cooper, C. L.), pp. 77–96. John Wiley: Chichester.Google Scholar
Lipowski, Z. J. (1977). Psychosomatic medicine in the seventies: an overview. American Journal of Psychiatry 134, 233–244.Google ScholarPubMed
Lipowski, Z. J. (1984). What does the word ‘psychosomatic’ really mean? A historical and semantic enquiry. Psychosomatic Medicine 46, 153–171.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGuire, W. L., Osborne, C. K., Clarke, G. M. & Knight, W. A. (1982). Steroid hormone receptors and carcinoma of the breast. American Journal of Physiology 243E, 99–102.Google Scholar
Millon, T., Gleen, J. C. & Meaher, R. B. (1979). The MBHI: A New Inventory for the Psychodiagnostician in Medical Settings, University of Miami: Florida.Google Scholar
Moorey, S. & Greer, S. (1989). Psychological Therapy for Patients with Cancer. Heinemann Medical Books: Oxford.Google Scholar
Morimota, T., Komaki, K., Yamamoto, H., Yamakawa, T., Tanak, T., Sonoo, H. & Monden, Y. (1988). Prognostic value of hormone receptors in breast cancer. Journal of Surgical Oncology 39, 101–107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pettingale, K. W., Philalithis, A., Tee, D. E. H. & Greer, H. S. (1981). The biological correlates of psychological responses to cancer. Journal of Psychosomatic Research 25, 453–458.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pettingale, K. W., Morris, T., Greer, S. & Haybittle, J. L. (1985). Mental attitudes to cancer: an additional prognostic factor. Lancet i, 750.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pettingale, K. W., Burgess, C. & Greer, S. (1988). Psychological response to cancer diagnosis. I. Correlations with prognostic variables. Journal of Psychosomatic Research 32, 255–261.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shapiro, C. M., Schifeling, D., Bitran, J. D., Desser, R. K., Rochman, H., Recant, W. & Billings, A. A. (1982). Prognostic value of estrogen receptor level in pathological stage I and II adenocarcinoma of the breast. Journal of Surgical Oncology 19, 119–121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spiegel, D., Bloom, J. R., Kraemer, H. C. & Gottheil, E. (1989). Survival of patients with metastatic breast cancer. Lancet ii, 888–891.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Watson, M., Greer, S., Young, J., Inyat, Q., Burgess, C. & Robertson, B. (1988). Development of a questionnaire measure of adjustment to cancer: the MAC scale. Psychological Medicine 18, 203–209.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wirsching, M., Georg, W., Hoffmann, F., Riehl, J. & Schmidt, P. (1988). Pychosocial factors influencing health development in breast cancer and mastopathia: a general systems study. In Stress and Breast Cancer (ed. Cooper, C. L.), pp. 99–107. John Wiley: Chichester.Google Scholar