Stress, injury and breast cancer

This page tells you about injury, stress and breast cancer. There is information about

• Research into stress and breast cancer
• Research into injury and breast cancer
• Risk factors for breast cancer

Stress has been widely discussed and researched as a cause of cancer. Many people worry that stress has helped to cause their cancer. But research has not found a definite link between stress and breast cancer. A study in Leeds in 1999 looked at stress in women with breast lumps. They wanted to find out if women who had been through a stressful event were more likely to have cancer. Researchers interviewed 332 women who were attending breast clinics in Leeds with a suspicious breast lump. 3 out of every 10 of these women (30%) were diagnosed with breast cancer. The rest had non cancerous lumps. The researchers interviewed all the women and recorded their experiences of stressful life events. There didn't seem to be any link between stress and breast cancer.

A study was published in the British Medical Journal in June, 2002. It was led by Professor Amanda Ramirez of Cancer Research UK's London Psychosocial Group. This study looked at whether stress was any more likely to make a breast cancer come back. The study followed the progress of more than 200 women with breast cancer over 5 years.

Some of the women had been through severely stressful problems, such as domestic violence, children involved in crime, and financial difficulties. The researchers found that stress did not make the breast cancer more likely to come back.

Professor Ramirez said: "For many years women have believed that experiencing stress in life might make their cancer come back and that avoiding undue stress is paramount. Our research means we can confidently reassure women that experiencing difficulties in life will not affect their chances of suffering a recurrence of their cancer."

Finally, a large and very famous study called the Nurses' Health Study has published a follow up study on stress in 2004. They were looking particularly at job stress and found no link with breast cancer risk.

Generally, doctors don't believe that an injury to the breast can lead to cancer. An injury can cause fibrous scar tissue to form and this may be mistaken for cancer. Or inflammation may make a breast lump that is already there more obvious. Some women wonder if a past injury could have caused their breast cancer. 

In 2002, a study took place within the North Lancashire Breast Screening Service. The researchers used questionnaires and interviews to collect information from 67 women with breast cancer and 134 women (the control group) who did not have breast cancer. The study said that the women with breast cancer were more likely to report an injury to the breast in the last 5 years. From their results, the researchers thought there might be a link between injury and cancer. But this is only one study looking at a small group of women in one area. Larger studies are needed to prove or disprove these results.

There is still a lot we don't know about the causes of cancer. Over the years researchers have identified certain risk factors that increase your chance of getting breast cancer. But having a risk factor doesn't mean you will definitely develop cancer.

It is important to remember that we have no influence on some of the risk factors associated with breast cancer, such as age or genetic make up. To lower our risk as much as possible we can all try to live a healthy lifestyle – eating a healthy diet and getting enough exercise. But unfortunately this does not guarantee that we will not develop cancer.