Looking along the track of the psychoneuroimmunologic axis for missing links in cancer progression

The present data report on five bereaved cancer patients with initial progression-free disease in respect to natural killer cell activity, beta-endorphin binding capacity of their peripheral blood lymphocytes, and the psychometrically objective parameter depression during widowhood. In bereaved and severely depressed cancer patients, there is a tendency of an earlier onset of decreased natural killer cell activity and a reduced binding affinity of beta-endorphin to peripheral blood lymphocytes. A second set of data obtained from a cancer patient cohort study shows a correlation between the two variables depression and beta-endorphin, profiles are inversely correlated and cancer patients, doing clinically well, state that physical activities counteract possible day-to-day depressive disorders. Taking together the two sets of data, one might speculate that for a definable subgroup of cancer patients physical activities raise endorphin levels and psychological well-being, both of which might modulate the activity of immune competent cells, which leads to an extended period of progression-free disease.