ArticleBrain, behavior, and immunity2022
The gut connection: Intestinal permeability as a pathway from breast cancer survivors' relationship satisfaction to inflammation across treatment.
Article in Brain, behavior, and immunity, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 22 citations in OpenAlex.
- Dance and Dietary Intervention Improves Metabolic Health, Fitness, and Quality of Life With Modest Gut Microbiota Shifts in Breast Cancer Patients With Obesity: A Pilot RCT.Cancer reports (Hoboken, N.J.) · 2026Trial
- A systematic assessment of the short- and long-term effects of commonly used breast cancer chemotherapeutics on the gut microbiome‒blood‒brain axis of female mice.Gut microbes · 2026Article
- Dual Mediating and Moderating Roles of Hope in the Association Between Marital Satisfaction and Post-Traumatic Growth Among Chinese Breast Cancer Patients: A Latent Profile Analysis.Psychology research and behavior management · 2026Article
- Optimizing breast cancer chemotherapy by harnessing gut microbiota with insights from artificial intelligence.NPJ biofilms and microbiomes · 2025Review
- Article
- Age-related and postmenopausal breast cancer progression and treatment management: The significance of pro-inflammatory cytokines and CXC chemokines.Genes & diseases · 2025Review
- The role of oxytocin in mediating the relationships between social factors and chemotherapy-associated cognitive decline in female patients with breast cancer.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2025Article
- Pretreatment plasma sCD14 as a prognostic indicator in advanced non-small cell lung cancer patients undergoing immunotherapy.BMC cancer · 2025Article
- Psychoneuroimmunology and the research of Janice Kiecolt-Glaser: It informs self-care and the practice of medicine.Comprehensive psychoneuroendocrinology · 2024Review
- Couples in breast cancer survivorship: Daily associations in relationship satisfaction, stress, and health.Comprehensive psychoneuroendocrinology · 2024Article
- You can't spell distress without stress: Expanding our perspective of the intersection between mental and physical health in cancer survivors.Comprehensive psychoneuroendocrinology · 2024Review
- The health consequences of stress in couples: A review and new integrated Dyadic Biobehavioral Stress Model.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
11 authors at 5 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundBreast cancer survivors are prone to weakened gut barriers, allowing bacteria to migrate into the blood stream. Gut permeability fuels inflammation, which, among survivors, can elevate risk for comorbid disease development, cancer recurrence, and a poor quality of life; however, survivors' satisfying relationships can provide health benefits. This longitudinal study used a conceptual model addressing how intimate relationships is associated with health through changes in gut permeability and inflammation.
methodBreast cancer survivors (n = 139, stages 0-IIIC) completed a baseline visit before treatment and two follow-up visits 6 and 18 months after treatment ended. Women who had an abnormal breast cancer test followed by a benign diagnosis completed visits within a comparable timeframe (noncancer patient controls; n = 69). All women completed questionnaires assessing their relationship satisfaction and provided blood samples to assess two bacterial endotoxin biomarkers, lipopolysaccharide-binding protein (LBP) and soluble CD14 (sCD14), as well as C-reactive protein (CRP) and interleukin 6 (IL-6).
resultsWithin-person multilevel mediation analyses showed that when a survivor's relationship satisfaction was higher than usual, her own LBP and LBP/sCD14 were lower, which was associated with lower than her own average CRP and IL-6 (95% CIs [-0.0104, -0.0002]). IL-6 was also higher when older survivors, but not younger survivors, experienced higher than usual intestinal permeability (p = .001). These effects of satisfying relationships held after accounting for cancer-related and behavioral factors. Post-hoc analyses showed LBP, sCD14, and LBP/sCD14 were associated with CRP for the cancer survivors, but only LBP and LBP/sCD14 were linked to CRP among the noncancer control patients.
conclusionThe gut environment is a new promising candidate for understanding a relationship's long-term health impact, particularly among those with elevated health risks. Survivors may reap multiple physiological benefits from satisfying relationships.
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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.