IT IS a widely held belief that having a positive outlook improves your chances of surviving cancer. But one study suggests this is not the case, at least with inoperable lung cancer.
According to a 10-year study of 179 patients, being optimistic at the start of treatment had no effect on survival time or the time it took for the cancer to spread. The researchers think the findings might actually help people cope better with the disease. 鈥淧atients experience significant social pressure to be positive, in the erroneous belief that it will help them survive. So if they don鈥檛 respond to treatment, they may feel guilty that they weren鈥檛 positive enough,鈥� says team member Penny Schofield of the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne, Australia, who presented the results at a cancer meeting in Perth last month.
However, inoperable lung cancers have a very low survival rate compared with other cancers 鈥� only eight of the 179 patients survived 鈥� and it is possible that people鈥檚 psychological state does play a role in less aggressive cancers, Schofield says.
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