Association of major stressors with elevated risk of breast cancer incidence or relapse

Stress as a term has become synonymous with modern day living. Most women who are diagnosed with breast cancer frequen tly blame "stress" as the key player for developing the disease. The effects of stress on the immune system have been studied since the 1950s but the advent of the field of psychoneuroimmunology and recent insights into the molecular and cellular pathways underlying carcinogenesis have improved our understanding of how immune cells regulate the development and progression of epithelial cancer. Nevertheless, epidemiological and prospective studies attempting to link stress and cancer have yielded conflicting and at times intriguing results. The present review outlines the pathophysiological effects of stress and how it may impact on carcinogenesis and enumerates the studies evaluating the association of stressors with the incidence and relapse of breast cancer.