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Psychological Counseling Boosts Breast Cancer Outcomes

MONDAY, Nov. 17 (HealthDay News) -- Psychological counseling may improve the chances of survival for breast cancer patients, a new study says.

Sessions that concentrate on mood improvement, effective coping and altering health behaviors appear to reduce stress and help the patient live longer, according to the report, published in the Dec. 15 issue of Cancer.

"If efficacious psychological interventions to reduce stress are delivered early, they will improve mental health, health and treatment-relevant behaviors, and potentially, biologic outcomes," the authors wrote. "If so, there is the possibility for improved survivorship and survival for cancer patients."

Researchers at Ohio State University based their findings on an 11-year study of more than 200 women who, at the start of the study, had recently been diagnosed with breast cancer.

Patients randomly assigned to psychological intervention groups had about half (55 percent) the risk of cancer recurrence than those who didn't receive counseling. Those intervention patients who did have a recurrence had been cancer-free an average of six months longer than the patients in the control group, a 45 percent reduced risk.

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