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you are in: knowledge of cancer  | faqs  | can being stressed increase my risk of developing cancer?

Can being stressed increase my risk of developing cancer?

Although stress can affect the immune system, its link to cancer is unknown

Stress seems to play a part in illness, but quite how much is still unknown. We do know that stress can affect both hormone levels and our immune system but there is no proof to say that stress can lead to cancer as a consequence of this. Some people think that if a stressed person has a cancer developing, their stress will make it harder for their immune system to kill the cancer cells. However, analyses of many different studies have still not found any robust evidence that there is a link between stress and cancer.

Everyone gets stressed now and then and sometimes being stressed can lead people to do unhealthy things such as smoke, drink too much, eat too much food or eat unhealthy foods. This type of unhealthy lifestyle can increase our risk of getting cancer but stress in itself has not been proven to cause cancer.

Therefore, if you want to reduce your risk of getting cancer the most important thing you can do that is within your own control is to lead a healthy lifestyle and definitely not smoke.

Page updated 23 April 2015

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