Stress and cancer

A new report illustrates how norepinephrine, a hormone produced during bouts of stress, accelerates the formation of more tumors and stimulate the release of a compound in tumor cells, facilitating the growth of new blood cells that feed cancer cells.

Researchers traced the harmful effect of norepinephrine after treating cancer cell lines used to study nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), an incurable head and neck cancer associated most frequently among those of Chinese descent. NPC cells produced three kinds of compounds (two matrix metalloproteinases and vascular endothelial growth factor) that spurred the growth of cancer.

Source: Science Daily November 3, 2006

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