Although more men may be saved from dying of prostate cancer due to advances in screening and treatment, a new study suggests that emotional stress from being diagnosed with the disease carries deadly risks. A study of more than four million Swedish men over the age of 30 found that the diagnosis of prostate cancer, which occurred in more than 168,000 of them during the study period, amplified the risk of fatal heart problems and suicide.
In men who were diagnosed before 1987, the risk of a fatal heart attack during the week following diagnosis increased 11-fold, and the risk of suicide increased 800 percent. After 1987, the risks of suffering a non-fatal heart attack during the first week of diagnosis fell to 300 percent. But the risk of suicide, although small, held steady. During the year following diagnosis, the risk of both heart attacks and suicide diminished but did not disappear.
"The risks are highest during the first week after diagnosis and young men seem to be most vulnerable," the authors said in a statement, noting that men 54 years of age and under were the most vulnerable. "These unrecognized consequences of a prostate cancer diagnosis deserve the attention of health professionals to the increasing number of men that are diagnosed with this disease."
"Stress can be an important trigger for physiologic reactions, including increased risk of cardiovascular disease," Dr. Meir Stampfer, professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health, told ABC News. "The diagnosis of cancer also can cause high enough stress to see a noticeable increase in both heart disease and suicide."
One in six American men will develop prostate cancer at some point during his lifetime.
© 2009 Newsmax. All rights reserved.
