Cancer therapy does not work in this case

A person who wants to cure cancer must first start a therapy to reduce stress in the body, new research shows.

Just knowing that a person has cancer causes a jump in stress hormones in the body, and this prevents the therapy from reaching the cancer cells and working, the results of research by the University of Brighton in England showed.

As the scientists explained, stress hormones make a shield around the cancer cells and thus prevent the therapy from doing its job. It is for these reasons that patients should first start therapy with help that will reduce the level of stress in the body before anti-cancer therapy.

"Breast cancer in itself is a stress for the body, so patients should immediately start anti-stress therapy," points out Dr. Melanie Flint, the author of the research - "Reducing stress primarily improves the psychological state of the body, but until now we had no idea that stress it also affects the anti-cancer therapy, i.e. it blocks it and makes it unsuccessful"

Dr. Flint's team found that cancer cells exposed to stress hormones such as cortisol are more prone to destructive DNA molecules, called free radicals. This causes cells to temporarily stop relentless cell division as DNA "repair" mechanisms are activated. Although stopping cancer cells from dividing may sound like good news - it's not! That pause actually protects the tumors from the effects of the therapy, reports B92.