Stress may amplify malignant skin cancer growth

New York, February 2: Adding more to a surging list of stress related health problems, a novel study by U.S. researchers has revealed that stress can accelerate the progression of malignant melanoma.

Melanoma is a serious type of skin cancerdefine that is becoming increasingly common worldwide.

The study by medical researchers at Ohio State University suggests that stress amplifies the growth of malignant melanoma particularly in patients with advanced condition.

After two years of research, Ohio researchers found a clear link between stress hormonesdefine and cancers.

The stress hormone, norepinephrinedefine also known as the "flight or fight" hormone, produces enzymes that stimulate blood vessels to grow in melanoma tumors, speeding up the progression and spread of tumors, the researchers explained.

The team of researchers including Eric V. Yang, a research scientist at the Institute for Ohio Behavioural Medicine Research (IBMR), and Ronald Glaser, a professor of molecular virology, immunologydefine and medical genetics, identified three norepinephrine-produced enzymes; vasculardefine endothelial growth factor (VEGF), Interleukin-6 and Interleukin-8.

While the VEGF protein mainly stimulates the growth of new blood vessels needed to feed a growing tumour, a process called angiogenesis, the Interleukin-6 and Interleukin-8 both nurture tumor growth.

Yang and Glaser found that IL-6 increased by 2000 percent in response to the norepinephrine stress hormone, demonstrating that stress has worse effects on aggressive and advanced-stage melanoma.

Yang said, "We noticed that all three of these proteins increased in response to the norepinephrine," adding that in the C8161 cells, "we got a 2,000 percent increase in IL-6. In untreated samples from this cell line, you normally can't detect any IL-6 at all."

"What this tells us is that stress might have a worse effect on melanoma that is in a very aggressive or advanced stage, and that one marker for that might be increased levels of IL-6."

The study authors believe their findings would help slow down the spread of malignant melanoma and offer new hope for prolonging the lives of patients with advanced condition.

The latest findings were published in the journal Brain, Behavior and Immunity.

Malignant melanoma, also known simply as melanoma, is a skin cancer, which is often deadly, but can be cured if caught in its earliest stages. It is the sixth most common cancer in the United States, and which is increasing most rapidly around the world.