ABSTRACT
Each year approximately one million Americans develop cancer and half a million die of the disease (Boring et al., 1992). Countries differ in their prevalence and death rates for cancer. For example, England and Wales have the fourth highest death rate in the world for women with cancer, with 164 women per 100,000 dying each year. However disturbing these figures are, they can be contrasted with other data, such as a 1989 Lancet report of the long term (10 year) follow-up of women with recurrent breast cancer who participated in a group therapy intervention. David Spiegel, Joan Bloom and their colleagues (Spiegel, et al., 1989) reported mortality data for 50 intervention and 36 no treatment control women. The women in the intervention group had participated in a group support intervention to enhance adjustment and reduce disease symptoms, such as pain. Their earlier research found that the intervention had helped the women feel less depressed, fatigued and troubled by the chronic pain from their illness. These and related reports had suggested that gains could be achieved with psychological therapy, even as life ebbs away. However, the dramatic data in the follow up showed an 18 month survival time difference between the groups, a mean of 36.6 months for the intervention and 18.9 months for the control, indicating that the women receiving the psychological intervention lived significantly longer. Findings such as these have renewed interest in a role for psychological efforts in coping and living with cancer.
