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Cancer and Stress: Does It Make a Difference to the Patient When These Two Challenges Collide?

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Head and neck cancers are the sixth most common cancer in the world. The burden of the disease has remained challenging over recent years despite the advances in treatments of other malignancies. The very use of the word malignancy brings about a stress response in almost all adult p...

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Autores principales: Iftikhar, Anem, Islam, Mohammad, Shepherd, Simon, Jones, Sarah, Ellis, Ian
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7825104/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33418900
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/cancers13020163
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author Iftikhar, Anem
Islam, Mohammad
Shepherd, Simon
Jones, Sarah
Ellis, Ian
author_facet Iftikhar, Anem
Islam, Mohammad
Shepherd, Simon
Jones, Sarah
Ellis, Ian
author_sort Iftikhar, Anem
collection PubMed
description SIMPLE SUMMARY: Head and neck cancers are the sixth most common cancer in the world. The burden of the disease has remained challenging over recent years despite the advances in treatments of other malignancies. The very use of the word malignancy brings about a stress response in almost all adult patients. Being told you have a tumour is not a word anyone wants to hear. We have embarked on a study which will investigate the effect of stress pathways on head and neck cancer patients and which signalling pathways may be involved. In the future, this will allow clinicians to better manage patients with head and neck cancer and reduce the patients’ stress so that this does not add to their tumour burden. ABSTRACT: A single head and neck Cancer (HNC) is a globally growing challenge associated with significant morbidity and mortality. The diagnosis itself can affect the patients profoundly let alone the complex and disfiguring treatment. The highly important functions of structures of the head and neck such as mastication, speech, aesthetics, identity and social interactions make a cancer diagnosis in this region even more psychologically traumatic. The emotional distress engendered as a result of functional and social disruption is certain to negatively affect health-related quality of life (HRQoL). The key biological responses to stressful events are moderated through the combined action of two systems, the hypothalamus–pituitary–adrenal axis (HPA) which releases glucocorticoids and the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) which releases catecholamines. In acute stress, these hormones help the body to regain homeostasis; however, in chronic stress their increased levels and activation of their receptors may aid in the progression of cancer. Despite ample evidence on the existence of stress in patients diagnosed with HNC, studies looking at the effect of stress on the progression of disease are scarce, compared to other cancers. This review summarises the challenges associated with HNC that make it stressful and describes how stress signalling aids in the progression of cancer. Growing evidence on the relationship between stress and HNC makes it paramount to focus future research towards a better understanding of stress and its effect on head and neck cancer.
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spelling pubmed-78251042021-01-24 Cancer and Stress: Does It Make a Difference to the Patient When These Two Challenges Collide? Iftikhar, Anem Islam, Mohammad Shepherd, Simon Jones, Sarah Ellis, Ian Cancers (Basel) Review SIMPLE SUMMARY: Head and neck cancers are the sixth most common cancer in the world. The burden of the disease has remained challenging over recent years despite the advances in treatments of other malignancies. The very use of the word malignancy brings about a stress response in almost all adult patients. Being told you have a tumour is not a word anyone wants to hear. We have embarked on a study which will investigate the effect of stress pathways on head and neck cancer patients and which signalling pathways may be involved. In the future, this will allow clinicians to better manage patients with head and neck cancer and reduce the patients’ stress so that this does not add to their tumour burden. ABSTRACT: A single head and neck Cancer (HNC) is a globally growing challenge associated with significant morbidity and mortality. The diagnosis itself can affect the patients profoundly let alone the complex and disfiguring treatment. The highly important functions of structures of the head and neck such as mastication, speech, aesthetics, identity and social interactions make a cancer diagnosis in this region even more psychologically traumatic. The emotional distress engendered as a result of functional and social disruption is certain to negatively affect health-related quality of life (HRQoL). The key biological responses to stressful events are moderated through the combined action of two systems, the hypothalamus–pituitary–adrenal axis (HPA) which releases glucocorticoids and the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) which releases catecholamines. In acute stress, these hormones help the body to regain homeostasis; however, in chronic stress their increased levels and activation of their receptors may aid in the progression of cancer. Despite ample evidence on the existence of stress in patients diagnosed with HNC, studies looking at the effect of stress on the progression of disease are scarce, compared to other cancers. This review summarises the challenges associated with HNC that make it stressful and describes how stress signalling aids in the progression of cancer. Growing evidence on the relationship between stress and HNC makes it paramount to focus future research towards a better understanding of stress and its effect on head and neck cancer. MDPI 2021-01-06 /pmc/articles/PMC7825104/ /pubmed/33418900 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/cancers13020163 Text en © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Iftikhar, Anem
Islam, Mohammad
Shepherd, Simon
Jones, Sarah
Ellis, Ian
Cancer and Stress: Does It Make a Difference to the Patient When These Two Challenges Collide?
title Cancer and Stress: Does It Make a Difference to the Patient When These Two Challenges Collide?
title_full Cancer and Stress: Does It Make a Difference to the Patient When These Two Challenges Collide?
title_fullStr Cancer and Stress: Does It Make a Difference to the Patient When These Two Challenges Collide?
title_full_unstemmed Cancer and Stress: Does It Make a Difference to the Patient When These Two Challenges Collide?
title_short Cancer and Stress: Does It Make a Difference to the Patient When These Two Challenges Collide?
title_sort cancer and stress: does it make a difference to the patient when these two challenges collide?
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7825104/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33418900
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/cancers13020163
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