Optimism ‘does not help cancer’

An optimistic attitude to being diagnosed with cancer does not have an impact on survival or disease progression, a new study claims.

Some popular and scientific debates have proposed that a positive stance can help boost the chances of surviving cancer.

As such some have argued that psychotherapy might be able to help fight cancer.

But the latest report says emotional well-being is not an independent risk factor affecting the outcome of head and neck cancers.

Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania studied data from two community studies of patients with head and neck cancer.

More than 1,000 patients completed questionnaires on quality of life during their treatment.

During the length of the study 646 of the participants died from their disease.

Emotional status was not associated with survival even after investigating other factors including gender, tumour site or disease stage.

Researcher Dr James Coyne commented: “The hope that we can fight cancer by influencing emotional states appears to have been misplaced. If cancer patients want psychotherapy or to be in a support group, they should be given the opportunity to do so.

“There can be lots of emotional and social benefits. But they should not seek such experiences solely on the expectation that they are extending their lives.”