Chronic and acute stress as predictors of relapse in primary breast cancerpatients

In this paper we present data on predictors of early relapse (at three and a half years post-surgery) in 44 patients with primary breast carcinoma. We expected that the degree to which receiving the diagnosis of malignancy wo uld act as an acute stressor would allow a prediction of early relapse. Acu te stress is measured by means of changes in psychological, neurochemical a nd immunological indicators of stress before and after the communication of the diagnosis. The results indicate that the assumption does not hold, Chr onic stress, however, appears to be a strong predictor of early relapse. Th e measure of chronic stress is based on a self-report questionnaire of heal th complaints in the year before the diagnosis of breast cancer. (C) 1999 E lsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.