[Life events and breast cancer. Initial results of a comparative study dealing with 100 cases and their control]

The authors present the first results of a case-control study relative to the importance of life events in the 5 years which precede the clinical apparition of breast cancer. This study has examined a group of 100 women of french origin, aged from 45 to 65 years and carriers of a breast cancer which had been diagnosed less than a year ago, as well as their controls matched according to age. If the total number of events is similar in the two groups, there appears a negative peak of social desirability events in the two years preceding the diagnosis of cancer. The quantification of event impact by the subjects shows a greater vulnerability in women with cancer.