ArticleBJPsych advances2021
Psychosocial stress and immunosuppression in cancer: what can we learn from new research?
Article in BJPsych advances, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed.
- Care of the immunocompromised cancer patient in the perioperative period: Narrative review.Indian journal of anaesthesia · 2025Review
- The Future of Oncology in Psychiatric Medications.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- Chronic stress: a fourth etiology in tumorigenesis?Molecular cancer · 2025Review
- The Interplay of Chronic Stress and Cancer: Pathophysiology and Implications for Integrated Care.Cancer reports (Hoboken, N.J.) · 2025Review
- Effect of Distress, Anxiety, and Depressive Symptoms on SARS-CoV-2 mRNA BNT162b2 Vaccine Efficacy in Cancer Patients.Cancers · 2024Article
- Restraint Stress-Induced Immunosuppression Is Associated with Concurrent Macrophage Pyroptosis Cell Death in Mice.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Article
- WPA Scientific Sections 2020-2023: from strengthened backbone to motor of innovation.World psychiatry : official journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) · 2023Article
- Interplay between stress and cancer-A focus on inflammation.Frontiers in physiology · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
It is generally believed that the physiological consequences of stress could contribute to poor outcomes for patients being treated for cancer. However, despite preclinical and clinical evidence suggesting that stress promotes increased cancer-related mortality, a comprehensive understanding of the mechanisms involved in mediating these effects does not yet exist. We reviewed 47 clinical studies published between 2007 and 2020 to determine whether psychosocial stress affects clinical outcomes in cancer: 6.4% of studies showed a protective effect; 44.6% showed a harmful effect; 48.9% showed no association. These data suggest that psychosocial stress could affect cancer incidence and/or mortality, but the association is unclear. To shed light on this potentially important relationship, objective biomarkers of stress are needed to more accurately evaluate levels of stress and its downstream effects. As a potential candidate, the neuroendocrine signalling pathways initiated by stress are known to affect anti-tumour immune cells, and here we summarise how this may promote an immunosuppressive, pro-tumour microenvironment. Further research must be done to understand the relationships between stress and immunity to more accurately measure how stress affects cancer progression and outcome.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.