PSYCHOLOGICAL or physical stress, including rigorous exercise, can sabotage cancer therapy, a study suggests.
The new findings indicate that people about to undergo chemotherapy or radiation treatment should try to relax and avoid intense activity.
Scientists found that getting stressed a day or two before the start of treatment can spark a series of events that allow cancer cells to survive.
The process involves a stress-induced protein called heat shock factor-1, whose job is to help tissues and cells cope with stress.
But laboratory experiments revealed it also comes to the aid of breast cancer cells. Heat shock factor-1 activated another protein that kept the tumour cells alive, even after they were exposed to radiation and chemotherapy.
