Abstract
Many psychosocial intervention studies have focused on treating cancer survivors, but less attention has been focused on those at risk for cancer. Women with a family history of breast cancer can't control their familial risk for cancer, but there are a number of risk-related factors they can control. These include immune function, body weight, diet, and physical activity. Psychological distress modulates all of these. If psychological distress is associated with poor immune function, poor diet, decreased physical activity, and increased BMI, reducing psychological distress should be associated with improved immune function, improved diet, increased physical activity, and lower BMI. We randomized 104 women (mean age 43 (SD=10.7), 87% white, mean education 17 years (SD 2.3)) with a family history of breast cancer who were also reporting elevated levels of distress to receive a cognitive behavioral stress management (CBSM) intervention or wait list control. CBSM women reported decreased distress, improved antibody response to Hepatitis A vaccine, decreased fat consumption, increased fiber consumption, increased leisure time physical activity, and a slight decrease in BMI over the 7 month course of the study that was significant when compared to the increased BMI among the waitlist control group women (all p's<.05). Cognitive behavioral stress management modulates outcomes important for cancer risk reduction among stressed women at increased risk for breast cancer due to family history. Cognitive behavioral stress management should be considered when counseling high risk women about managing their breast cancer risk.
Citation Information: Cancer Prev Res 2011;4(10 Suppl):PR-07.
RSS Feeds