pgf@hou5h.UUCP (Paul Fox) (09/28/83)
I was once told (or perhaps I read) a couple of strange "facts" about cancer, and I was wondering if anyone out there could refute or substantiate them. I don't even know where to start looking for the answers. The first was that among the patients of mental hospitals, the recovery rate from cancer is on the order of 100% (or at least very high). The implication was, I suppose, that those patients were less worried about their illness-- maybe cancer is partially psychosomatic? The other statistic was that there is a higher incidence rate of cancer among people whose last names begin with the letter 'S'. This may of course be a restatement of the percentage of *all* people whose last names begin with 'S' (i.e. more of the people who have cancer have last names that begin with 'S'...). I was just curious about this stuff... makes for good trivia, even if you don't understand any of the actual issues. Paul Fox, AT&T Information Systems Laboratories Holmdel, NJ ihnp4!hou5f!pgf
norm@ariel.UUCP (N.ANDREWS) (09/29/83)
I heard somewhere that there was some evidence that uptight or neurotically anxious people had a higher-than-average risk of getting cancer in the first place. If this were true, then what Paul Fox heard about people in mental institutions having higher cancer cure rates can probably be explained in the following manner: Some one whose psychology causes him to mismanage stress or experience undue anxiety will have psychosomatic effects resulting in a greater tendency to develop some type of cancer. If that person is placed in a mental institution before the cancer is discovered, his environmental situation changes in such a manner as to reduce stressful or anxiety-producing situations and demands. Since the development of cancer in this individual was partly related to that stress, a reduction in stress might make his body better able to fight off the cancer than someone whose immune functions were impaired for other reasons. Note that I am implying that healthy immune function helps recovery and that anxiety impairs immune function. Norm Andrews, AT&T Information Systems, Holmdel, New Jersey