Comments(1)

Psychological distress and breast cancer-is there any correlation with response to therapy

. Chintamani   (14 October 2008)  Vardhman Mahavir Medical College Safdarjang hospital New Delhi-India-110023

We read with interest the article by Ronid Pelet et al. The increased incidence of adverse and depressing life style events in breast cancer cases as compared to the age matched control group further highlights the already known relationship of increased stress with higher incidence of breast cancer. We are presently working on the correlation of the levels of depression and stress with response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in patients with locally advanced breast cancers. The intial results(not yet published)indicate a statistically significant correlation between the two. Patients with higher levels of happiness or lower depression and anxiety levels(measured using HADS score) responded better to their therapy.We would therefore like to know, if there was any correlation observed in this case control study between the levels(scores including life events) of depression and response to treatment amongst the cases? .

Chintamani

Competing interests

I declare that I have no competing interests.

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