ADVERSE LIFE EVENTS AND BREAST-CANCER - CASE-CONTROL STUDY

Objective--To investigate the strength of association between past lif e events and the development of breast cancer. Design--Case-control st udy. A standardised life events interview and rating was administered before a definitive diagnosis. Setting--Breast Cancer Screening Assess ment Unit and surgical outpatient clinics at King's College Hospital, London. Subjects--119 consecutive women aged 20-70 who were referred f or biopsy of a suspicious breast lesion. Main outcome measures--Odds r atio of the risk of developing breast cancer after life events in the preceding five years after adjustment for confounders. Results--41 wom en were diagnosed as having malignant disease while the remainder had benign conditions. Severe Life events increased the risk of breast can cer. The crude odds ratio was 3.2 (95% confidence interval 1.35 to 7.6 ). After adjustment for age and the menopause and other potential conf ounders this rose to 11.6 (3.1 to 43.7). Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that all severe events and coping with the stress of a dverse events by confronting them and focusing on the problems signifi cantly predicted a diagnosis of breast cancer. Non-severe life events and long term difficulties had no significant association. Conclusion- -These findings suggest an aetiological association between life stres s and breast cancer.