‘Vital exhaustion’ not seen to boost cancer risk

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – People suffering from so-called
‘vital exhaustion’ don’t seem to be at increased risk of
developing cancer, a new study shows.

Vital exhaustion is a term coined to describe a collection
of symptoms including excessive fatigue, irritability, lack of
energy and a sense of demoralization. It has been tied to
increased risk of cardiovascular disease, and hypothesized to
increase cancer risk. But studies of that notion have had
conflicting results.

In the current study, Dr. Christoffer Johansen of the
Danish Cancer Society in Copenhagen and colleagues found that
individuals with the highest vital exhaustion scores were
actually at lower risk of cancer than less-exhausted study
participants — although this reduction was of borderline
significance from a statistical standpoint.

Johansen and his team followed 8527 participants in the
Copenhagen City Heart Study, identifying cancer cases through
linkage to the Danish Cancer Registry.

The average follow-up period was 8.6 years, during which
time 12 percent of the study participants developed cancer, the
investigators report in the medical journal Cancer.

While risky behaviors such as smoking and sedentary
lifestyle were more common among the men and women with the
highest vital exhaustion scores, these individuals actually
were at lower risk for smoking-related cancers.

Compared to study participants with the lowest vital
exhaustion scores, the most exhausted individuals were 20
percent less likely to develop cancer overall.

Vital exhaustion has been linked to increased risk of death
from any cause, so it is possible that the most exhausted study
participants may have died from other causes before developing
cancer, the researchers note.

They add, “The findings of the current study correspond to
those reported in recent reviews on psychosocial factors and
cancer incidence, which concluded that there is no clear
evidence for an association between depression and cancer
risk.”

SOURCE: Cancer, September 15, 2005.