Stress and hopelessness in the promotion of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia to invasive squamous cell carcinoma of the cervix.

Stress and hopelessness have been associated with the development of invasive cervical cancer by previous research. Subjects in this study were recruited from a colposcopy clinic awaiting work-up of an abnormal pap smear and from those admitted to an in-patient gynecology ward for cone biopsy of the cervix or hysterectomy to treat a symptomatic pelvic mass thought to be uterine leiomyomas. After data collection, pathology reports and colposcopic findings were used to determine group assignment independent of subjects' knowledge of their diagnosis. A modest stress-promotion correlation was derived, which was greatly enhanced by significant interactions with low levels of cooperative coping style and for high levels of premorbid pessimism, future despair, somatic anxiety, and life threat reactivity. These stress-moderator interactions are discussed in terms of immune system deficit with concomitant enhancement of promotion of CIN to invasive squamous cell cervical cancer.