Background: To our knowledge, the associations between the life stress due to losses and deficit at childhood and adolescence and the risk of breast cancer are rarely considered together in a prospective study.
Materials and methods: This study is an extension of the Kuopio Breast Cancer Study. Women with breast symptoms were referred by physicians to the Kuopio University Hospital (Finland) and were asked to participate in this study. These women (n=115) were interviewed, and all study variables were obtained before any diagnostic procedures were carried out, so neither the investigator nor the participants knew the final diagnosis of breast symptoms at the time of the interview. The research method used was the semistructured in-depth interview method. The investigator used the Montgomery-Asberg depression rating scale (MADRS) to evaluate the depression of the study participants. All participants were also asked to complete standardized questionnaires (Beck depression inventory and Spielberger trait inventory).
Results: The clinical examination and biopsy showed breast cancer in 34 patients, benign breast disease in 53 patients, and 28 individuals were shown to be healthy. The BC group had significantly higher mean score for the deficit in childhood than the BBD and HSS groups (p<0.05). The women in the BC group had almost significantly higher mean scores for the loss of social status in childhood than the women in the BBD and HSS groups (p=0.05). The BC group had also significantly more severe deficit in childhood than the BBD and HSS groups (p=0.02). The results indicated that breast cancer patients tended to have more life stress due to losses and deficit in childhood and adolescence than BBD and HSS groups.
Conclusion: The results of this study support a weak association between life stress due to losses and deficit in childhood and adolescence and breast cancer risk. However, the biological explanation for such an association is unclear and it might be that stress due to losses and deficit impacts indirectly on breast cancer risk, affecting behaviour, or directly on the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and autonomic nervous system functioning.