Social interaction affects cancer patients’ response to treatment

How well cancer patients fared after chemotherapy was affected by their social interaction with other patients during treatment, according to a new study by researchers at the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) and the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.

This image depicts a chemotherapy ward co-presence network. Circles are patients with color based on when they began chemotherapy (white corresponds to January, 2000, and red corresponds to December, 2008). Patients are connected when they were both in the chemotherapy ward at the same time more than expected by chance. Image credit: Jeff Leinert, NHGRI

Cancer patients were a little more likely to survive for five years or more after chemotherapy if they interacted during chemotherapy with other patients who also survived for five years or more.

Patients were a little more likely to die in less than five years after chemotherapy when they interacted during chemotherapy with those who died in less than five years.

The researchers examined the total time a patient spent with the same patients undergoing chemotherapy and their five-year survival rate. The five-year survival rate is the percentage of people who live at least five years after chemotherapy treatment is completed.

For example, a five-year survival rate of 70 percent means that an estimated 70 out of 100 people are still alive five years after chemotherapy. They also reviewed a room schematic to confirm the assumption that patients were potentially positioned to interact.

When patients were around those during chemotherapy who died in less than five years following chemotherapy, they had a 72 percent chance of dying within five years following their chemotherapy.

The best outcome was when patients interacted with someone who survived for five years or longer: they had a 68 percent chance of dying within five years. The researchers’ model also predicted that if patients were isolated from other patients, they would have a 69.5 percent chance of dying within five years.

The researchers didn’t study why the difference occurred, but hypothesize that it may be related to stress response.

While the researchers also didn’t investigate the impact of visitors on cancer patients undergoing therapy, the effect would likely be similar.

Positive social support during the exact moments of greatest stress is crucial. If you have a friend with cancer, keeping him or her company during chemotherapy probably will help reduce their stress. The impact is likely to be as effective, and possibly more effective, than cancer patients interacting with other cancer patients. (National Institutes of Health)

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