Skip to content
Surprising Science

Stress Cases

Stress hormones may indirectly promote the spread of cancer in the body by hurting the immune system’s anti-tumor mechanisms and encouraging new blood vessels to form.
Sign up for the Smarter Faster newsletter
A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

The hormones associated with chronic stress may indirectly promote the spread of cancer in the body by hurting the immune system’s anti-tumor mechanisms and encouraging new blood vessels to form. Researcher Anil Sood says he now hopes to find ways to interfere with these tumor-feeding stress hormones with cognitive-behavioral therapies or drugs like beta blockers and anti-depressants.

Sign up for the Smarter Faster newsletter
A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

Related

Up Next
Does assassinating top terrorists really make us safer? Robert Wright looks at research suggesting that “decapitation doesn’t lower the life expectancy of the decapitated groups.”