Stress accelerates experimental skin cancer

Mice exposed to stress and ultraviolet radiation develop skin cancer significantly faster than do animals exposed to radiation only, researchers have found. They suggest this may be relevant to people at high risk of skin cancer.

Dr. Francisco Tausk of the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Baltimore, and colleagues irradiated restrained mice with ultraviolet B rays, and stressed the animals by exposing them to the odor of urine from foxes, which are natural predators of mice.

Stress exposure began 14 days before irradiation and continued three times a week for the duration of the study.

A comparison group of "control" mice were housed in another room and were irradiated without urine exposure.

The first tumor appeared in the stressed group after 8 weeks, but not in the control group until the 21st week, the team reports in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology. In addition, 35 percent of the stressed mice had at least one tumor compared with 7 percent of controls.

If these results can be applied to the problem of sun-induced skin cancers in humans, Tausk told Reuters Health, they suggest that "stress-reducing techniques could help to ameliorate the development of these tumors."

Possible approaches might include meditation and self-hypnosis. "Psychosocial interventions" have been reported in the past to prolong the lifespan of cancer patients, he added.

SOURCE: Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, December 2004.