A new study by researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center suggests that cancer that has already appeared in the body will be encouraged by stress.

The study, also mentioned in Forbes, specifically tested the effects of stress on prostate cancer and found that that stress can both reduce the impact of prostate cancer treatment drugs and accelerate its growth.

Two models were used to make these conclusions. The first study used mice that were implanted with human prostate cancer cells. The other model used mice that were genetically modified to develop them.

In the first model, the cancer cells died when the mice were calm, but remained when the mice were stressed.

In the second model, the cancer cells decreased in size when the mice were treated with a common prostate cancer drug, but increased when they were stressed.

Both cases obviously indicate that stress was not good element.

The findings can be found  in this month’s issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation.