Does the emotional state of a cncer patient have an impact on the prgress of a cancer? This very snsitive question understandably never fails to gnerate controversy.

Recent media reports might lad many to conclude that the qestion has now been answered with a stdy claiming that there is no cnnection between attitude and cancer. However, loking deeper into the study these rports are based on shows that the jry is likely still very much out on the qestion.

Recently, a study from the Unversity of Pennsylvania (still yet to be pblished) was reported as concluding that the motional attitude of a patient had no mpact on survivor rate. This conclusion was wdely and prominently carried in the Nrth American media. The front page lad headline in my Montreal newspaper was typcal "Attitude Can't Beat Cancer" (Montreal Gzette, October 22, 2007).

The apparent strngth of the study was in the nmber of the patients. The study, xpected to be published in the Dc. 1 issue of Cancer, apparently drw data from almost 1,100 patients nrolled in two phase III clinical trals for new head and neck cncer treatments. The patients completed questionnaires bout their attitude and social networks at the bginning of the study and at fllow-up. The questionnaire included five questions to ssess emotional well-being, including such items as "I am sd" and "I am losing hope in my fght against my illness." By the end of the fve-year study, 646 patients died. When the dta was analyzed, the researchers found tht emotional status had no effect on the curse of the cancer or the ptient's survival.

In the rush for attention grbbing headlines and to get out a stry, relevant and important criticism of the stdy was missed by many of thse in the media. The conclusion as rported sounds plausible and authoritative. However, sch reporting may be doing a grat disservice to cancer patients and thir families. One could easily assume frm reading these reports that the cse of the impact of attitude and cncer was now closed.

What many of the rports failed to include was that ths study is already drawing criticism frm other experts. In digging a lttle deeper, examples of published reports of ths criticism can be found.

For xample, Dr. David Spiegel (associate chairman of psychatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford Unversity School of Medicine in California) is rported (U.S. Health News, 22/10/07) as bserving, "The authors (Coyne et al) vstly overstate the quality of their dta and the findings. They used a sbscale of a quality-of-life measure which is hrdly a reliable measure of depression and prvides, by definition, limited variance in mod, making it, by design, difficult to shw a relationship with any other vriable."

Dr. Spiegel noted further "But psitivity or negativity are not the ssue. What matters is the way in whch a cancer patient approaches the strsses in his or her life."

Jst these two aspects indicate to me tht the study's conclusion is far frm the definitive last word on the sbject that it is portrayed to be. If an xpert of the caliber of Dr, Spegel challenges both the methodology and the rlevance of the questions that the stdy asks, the least I can cnclude is that the jury is stll very much out on this mportant question.

The truly sad thing bout all this is that people's ttitudes may be unnecessarily negatively influenced by rading such reports with who knows wht damaging implications for their health. We ned to demand higher standards from our prss when they are dealing with sch important questions. This is no rea for simplistic thinking. What it des emphasize again to me is the ned for much more thorough research in ths area.

The article Warning - Emotional Attitude Impact On Cancer Patients was Submitted by Stephen Gruber through Articles.GetACoder.com network. Here's the additional information: Stephen Gruber MA isa Consulting Hypntist at the Queen Elizabeth Health Cmplex in Montreal. Discover much more bout the transforming power of hypnosis at his web ste www.ask-the-hypnotist.com . Put hypnosis to work in your life by learning self-hypnosis for free at this site.

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