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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Study: no ‘cancer personality’

Washington Post

WASHINGTON – Notwithstanding the claims of some alternative medical books and Web sites, there is no such thing as a “cancer personality,” according to a new study of nearly 30,000 Swedes.

A number of psychologists and others have hypothesized that some people are more likely to get cancer because they are angry, neurotic or otherwise unstable. One Web site, for example, has claimed that “lack of self-esteem, the need to people-please, frustrated self-expression, sexual repression, a conflicted mother-daughter relationship and other traits all are part of the breast cancer personality.”

Such assessments have angered some doctors, patients and others because they seem to blame patients for their own disease.

The new study looked for links between cancer rates and two commonly measured personality traits: extroversion, which relates to a person’s need for interaction with others, and neuroticism, a measure of emotional instability.

The study found no association between cancer diagnoses and any pattern of neuroticism or extroversion. The analysis did not even find evidence that those personality traits were linked to risky behaviors, such as smoking, that might increase one’s odds of cancer.

The results affirm those of a 2003 Japanese study that also found no link between cancer and personality traits.