Long-term stress up cancer risk by 20 pct for Men: Study

January 21, 2018

Tokyo- The cancer risk for men feeling high stress for a long period is 20 pct higher than that for men free of stress, according to a tracking survey by a Japanese team of researchers, including from the National Cancer Center.

The survey was conducted between 1990 and 2012 on a total of 79,301 men and women aged 40-69. The average study period came to 17.8 years.

The team asked the research participants about their perceived stress levels twice--at the beginning of the survey and five years later.

The cancer risk for men who replied on both occasions that they had a lot of stress proved 19 pct higher than that for men who said in both cases that they had no stress.

For men who had a little or moderate stress at the start of the survey but felt a lot of stress five years later, the risk was 20 pct higher compared with that for the men with no stress on both occasions.

Of the surveyed people, 12,486 developed cancer. The research team said that stress particularly increased the risk of liver and prostate cancer. Jiji Press