Citation

Bandinelli LP, Levandowski ML, Grassi-Oliveira R. Med. Hypotheses 2017; 108: 86-93.

Affiliation

Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Lab (DCNL), Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS), RS, Brazil; Post-Graduate Program in Psychology, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre (PUCRS), RS, Brazil. Electronic address: rodrigo.grassi@pucrs.br.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.mehy.2017.08.007

PMID

29055407

Abstract

Stress and cancer are two complex situations involving different biological and psychological mechanisms. Their relationship have long been studied, and there is evidence of the impact stress has on both, development and disease progression. Furthermore, early stress has been studied as an important factor associated to this relationship, since its impacts on the immune, endocrine and cognitive development throughout life is already known. Therefore, understanding early stress as a first wave of stress in life is necessary in order to explore a possible second wave hit model. From this perspective, we believe that breast cancer can be understood as a second wave of stress during development and that, in addition to the first wave, can cause important impacts on the response to cancer treatment, such as increased chances of disease progression and distinct behavioral responses. In this article we propose a second wave hit hypothesis applied to breast cancer and its implications on the immune, endocrine and cognitive systems, through mechanisms that involve the HPA axis and subsequent activations of stress responses.

Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

Breast cancer; Cancer; Child abuse; Childhood maltreatment; Early life stress; Second wave hit