Chronic stress triggers a chain of molecular events that protects breakaway ovarian cancer cells from destruction, a team of researchers reports in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. In preclinical research, the team found that heightened levels of the fight-or-flight stress hormones epinephrine and norepinephrine permit more malignant cells to safely leave the primary tumor, a necessary step in metastasis and cancer progression. They also found that ovarian cancer patients face earlier mortality when a crucial protein activated by the hormones is present at high levels in their tumors and that depressed patients have higher levels of the protein.
Using depression as an indicator of stress, the researchers found major depression was associated with increased levels of norepinephrine in the tumors.
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