Define Stress Factors - Etiological Risk Factors in Cancer?

Emotions playing a part in malignancy are not a new idea. But these relationships are extremely difficult to measure. The interesting fact is more observations are being made of relationships between cancer and measurable factors of stress. Clinicians and researchers have reported that psychic trauma, seems to carry strong correlations with cancer. Two important physiological causes are assured for this correlation. One is damage to the thymus gland and the immune system. Second is the neuro-endocrine effects mediated through the hypothalamus, pituitary and adrenal cortex. Specific studies need to be carried out in this area to confirm the association between stress factors and cancer.