Stress causes prostate cancer

• April 23, 2024

The stress daily in men can be considered as one of the causes of prostate cancer, as well as cause a greater tumor spread, according to a study of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, United States.

The researchers observed that branches of the nervous system, responsible for involuntary functions such as the fight or flight mechanism, can play an important role as one of the causes of prostate cancer.

According to Dr. Paul Frenette, one of those responsible for the study , explains that one of the branches, the sympathetic nervous system (SNS), promotes tumor growth by generating a neurochemical: noradrenaline.

While the parasympathetic nervous system (SNP), after the SNS triggers the early stages of prostate cancer, is involved later, in regard to the spread of the tumor.

According to the specialists, the SNS regulates the rapid responses to flight or the fight of the body to the stress and the danger from increased heart rate and constriction of blood vessels; in counterpart, the SNP works in opposition to it, helping the body to relax and conserve energy.

However, both systems, when conditions are presented where the stress it is more frequent, they act in such a way that both have important prostate cancer promoting effects.

Likewise, Frenette explains, when noradrenaline, a hormone stress primary, binds to molecules on the surface of tumor cells, causing the release of cancer-stimulating chemicals.

As part of the study results, an analysis of tissue samples taken from prostate cancer patients showed that aggressive tumors had more nerve fibers in and around them than non-aggressive tumors.

This is because some tumors grow and migrate along the nerve fibers. Nerves are commonly found in and around tumors, but until now their role in the development of cancer has not been entirely clear.

However, the specialists also observed in the tests applied in mice, that the high blood pressure and anxiety medications called beta-blockers, act by blocking the noradrenaline receptors.

This may explain the recent findings of improved survival in patients with prostate cancer in beta-blockers, the scientists said, so they could be constituted with one of the mechanisms by which this cause of prostate cancer could be stopped.

Video Medicine: Men Watching and Waiting on Prostate Cancer (April 2024).