Martha Hoff, MFCC
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Rotterdam University studied six people who had spontaneous cancer remission and compared them to six patients suffering from advanced progressive cancer. They found that five out of six of the spontaneous recoverers changed their diet, and all six experienced a fairly radical change in how they saw their lives and many of their relationships. The patients with progressive cancer were more likely to resist change. Of note: only two of the twelve patients had a tendency to deny they had cancer, and both were in the group of those with spontaneous remissions.VanBaalen, Daan C., de Vries, Marco J., Gondrie, Marjolein T., "Psych-Social Correlates of ‘Spontaneous’ Regression in Cancer." Monograph, Department of General Pathology, Medical Faculty, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, April, 1987.

Another study looked at women who were treated for early breast cancer. Recurrence-free survival was significantly more common among patients who either had a fighting spirit ("I will win"), or were in denial ("Everything is fine, I really don't have a problem"). The opposite was true for patients who were either stoic ("I will grit my teeth and accept my fate") or had a helpless-hopeless response to their illness ("I'm doomed and there is nothing I can do about it").Note: explanations in parenthesis are mine -M.H. Greer and Silberford, "Psychological Concommetants of Cancer: Current State of Research", Psychological Medicine 12:569(1982)

A third study reported that women with malignant breast tumors had more difficulty expressing anger then those with benign tumors (expressing anger could be a very important attribute to develop, since the previous study found that women with a "fighting" spirit have better survival rates-M.H.). Greer, S., and T. Morris, "Psychological Attributes of Women Who Develop Breast Cancer: A Controlled Study," Journal of Psychosomatic Research 19:147-53(1975).

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