Email a Friend
Print ArticleBreast Cancer Health Center
Personality Doesn't Sway Breast Cancer
Jan. 29, 2008 -- A woman's personality doesn't affect her odds of developing breast cancer, Dutch researchers report.
The findings may reassure patients that "their personality appears to have played no role in the development of their breast cancer," write Eveline Bleiker, PhD, of the Netherlands Cancer Institute, and colleagues.
They studied some 9,700 women aged 43 and older in the Dutch city of Nijmegen.
When the study began, none of the women had breast cancer. They completed personality surveys about traits including anxiety, anger, depression, optimism, and the ability to express emotions. They also answered questions about their breast cancer risk factors.
The women were followed for 13 years. During that time, 217 women were diagnosed with breast cancer.
The researchers found no personality differences between women who were and weren't diagnosed with breast cancer.
"Personality factors were not associated with the development of breast cancer," Bleiker's team writes in the Feb. 6 edition of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
About two years ago, another European study showed no link between personality and the odds of developing any type of cancer -- not just breast cancer. That study appeared in the Jan. 24, 2005, edition of Cancer.
del.icio.us
October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and a new study reveals why a high number of women with the disease still prefer to have the entire breast surgically removed instead of just the tumor. It's not always because doctors recommend it.
