34 patients in the control group did not get any psychological support, but the 34 people in the treatment group attended a six-week program of group support in which they were taught about their disease, nutrition, and about stress management techniques such as relaxation. Five to six years later, in the control group, 10 of the patients had died and three more had suffered recurrences of their melanoma. In the psychological treatment group, there were only three deaths and four recurrences.
Dr. F. I. Fawzy of the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA, who conducted the studied, noted that the patients who received the psychological support had an increase in the activity of killer cells which destroy cancer cells (Contavespi, 1994). This suggests that psychological effects produce physiological effects which help fight disease. The process is extremely complicated biologically. Under conditions of stress, which cancer certainly causes in patients, the brain produces chemical mediators which stimulate the release of the hormone cortisol. Cortisol has anti-inflammatory properties, which depress the immune system, and would therefore inhibit it from fighting the cancer. In breast cancer, another mind/body interaction comes into play. Stress causes the brain to release prolactin, which stimulates milk production in women by stimulating the growth of breast cells. It can also stimulate the growth of breast cancer cells, and so stress can aggravate breast cancer growth in women.
When patients confront their illness and conquer their fear of death, their stress level is reduced and so they produce less of these cancer-stimulating hormones, according to Dr. Jimmie Holland, chief of psychiatry at ManhattanÆs Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (Contavespi, 1974). A support group makes the patients face the unpleasant side of their cancer rather than trying to suppress it, such as the fear of be...