Positive thinking ‘has no impact on cancer survival’

By Jeremy Laurance Health Editor

08 November 2002

The widespread belief that thinking positively prolongs survival from cancer

is a myth, researchers say today.

A positive outlook combined with a fighting spirit is often said to be the

best way of dealing with cancer. Patients are commonly portrayed as engaged

in a “battle” which they confront “bravely”.

But the reality is that however they face the disease, whether with optimism

or fatalism, hope or despair, anger or acceptance, the outcome is the same.

Mark Petticrew and colleagues from the Medical Research Council's Social and

Public Health Sciences Unit at the University of Newcastle identified seven

psychological coping styles and found none was better than any other in

terms of prolonging survival or preventing recurrence.

The finding should relieve cancer patients of the tendency to blame

themselves. Dr Petticrew said: "The message is that people living with

cancer should not feel obliged to respond in any particular way. That is the

really important thing. There have been suggestions that cancer patients

have felt under moral pressure to react in a certain way."

The researchers reviewed 26 studies of the influence of psychological coping

styles. The findings are published in the British Medical Journal.

The studies showed that people respond to a diagnosis of cancer in many

different ways. After the initial shock, some react in a combative manner,

adopting a fighting spirit. They will characteristically scour the internet

for information, experiment with alternative treatments, and examine their

lives for clues to the cause of the disease or ways to attack it.

Others react with helplessness or hopelessness, become anxious and

depressed, and fear what the future holds. A third group react with denial,

avoiding discussion of the subject and continuing with their lives as if

nothing had happened. This also characterises those who acknowledge the

seriousness of the diagnosis but carry on, stoically accepting their fate.

Dr Petticrew, a psychologist and associate director of the MRC unit, said

the idea that mental attitude was important in cancer had developed because

it had biological plausibility. "It has often been suggested that stress

involves the production of cortisol and other hormones which have a

suppressant effect on the immune system. So it might have an effect on

cancer survival."

Although the review showed there was no effect on length of survival or

recurrence, the researchers did not study quality of life, an area where

mental attitude is likely to have more impact. Dr Petticrew said: "Our

findings do not mean that having a positive mental attitude isn't a good

thing generally. People with a positive mental outlook are more likely to

comply with their treatment, suffer less anxiety and depression, and have a

better quality of life ? they just won't live longer."