A positive attitude isn’t the answer to fighting cancer
Submitted by Dr.Kattlove’s Cancer Blog
Many years ago, I treated a young man with an uncommon cancer called islet cell cancer of the pancreas. Unlike the usual pancreas cancers, which begin in the ducts that carry pancreatic juices into the intestine, this cancer starts in the insulin producing cells of the pancreas. Often these are slow growing cancers. Although they can be fatal, they are usually not as deadly as they typical pancreatic cancer.
This young man and his wife were sure that they would easily beast the cancer because he had a positive attitude and was going to fight hard. I wasn’t so sure. His cancer was larger than the typical islet cell cancer and was growing pretty fast. Unfortunately, I was right and the cancer took him away from his wife and children in a matter of months.
This lack of benefit from a positive attitude has always been my experience. A positive attitude is no defense against an aggressive cancer. Optimistic or pessimistic, your survival depends on the cancer and its treatment. Now a study has been published that confirms my feelings. The study included over 1000 patients who were being treated for head and neck cancer (somewhere in the mouth, pharynx or larynx). They were all given a questionnaire that looked at their emotional state. They were asked about whether they were sad, pessimistic or optimistic, depressed, etc.
The researchers simply counted the number of people who died and looked to see whether when they began treatment whey had positive or negative moods. Of course there were a lot of in-betweens that were also included. Their mood didn’t affect their survival. Pessimists were just as likely to be cured, and optimists no less likely to succumb.
Although these results may not seem important, because we really can’t control our moods, it can make a difference. Many people blame themselves if their cancer doesn’t improve. Now we can say it is not their fault. They needn’t feel guilty. Being a happy positive person wouldn’t have helped.
In my own experience there was one advantage to being optimistic and positive – it made the treatment go easier and patients were less likely drop out of treatment and would tolerate the most aggressive (and hopefully most curative) approach. So, happy or sad, the most important thing you can do when getting cancer treatment is to just show up.
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