Social isolation and stress contributes to the susceptibility of cancer, according to research unveiled by scientists at the University of Chicago in an animal model. Experiment results are published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and provide an estimated: the probability of developing breast cancer rise by more than three times those environmental factors.
The study is the first to establish the isolation and stress as a possible risk factor for human breast cancer, according to lead author Martha McClintock, a psychologist at the University of Chicago. Scientists investigating this association finding that many women in violent neighborhoods and with some degree of social isolation suffer before breast tumors, although in the same proportion as women in other walks of life.
“You have to look at the problem [of cancer] from several perspectives, including the sources of stress in communities, and biological aspects of tumor development,” stresses McClintock. In fact, this work is part of a series of studies at the University of Chicago to explore the connection between social isolation and the biology of breast cancer.
The work has found that isolation increases the production of corticosterone in rats that were kept alone and subjected to stressful situations, for example, make them smell a predator. The authors also suggest a causal relationship between social interaction and disease, derived from live only generates higher levels of stress hormones in rats, from the earliest stages of life, making them more scary, anxious and prone to malignancies in the age adult.
The hormone receptor was observed in the nucleus of tumor cells isolated from rats, which was found less frequently in non-isolated rats. The experience of isolation was a 135 percent increase in the number of tumors and more than 8,000 per cent increase in its size. The impact of loneliness was much higher than that of other environmental source of tumor formation, such as unlimited calorie food.