“Health is a state of complete harmony of the body, mind and spirit. When one is free from physical disabilities and mental distractions, the gates of the soul open.” ~B.K.S. Iyengar
About 12.5% of women in the U.S. develop invasive breast cancer over their lifetimes and every year about 40,000 women die. Indeed, more women in the U.S. die from breast cancer than from any other cancer, besides lung cancer. It is encouraging, however, that the death rates have been decreasing for decades from improved detection and treatment of breast cancer. Five-year survival rates are now at around 95%.
The improved survival rates mean that more women are now living with cancer. This can be difficult as breast cancer survivors can have to deal with the consequences of chemotherapy, and often experience increased fatigue, pain, and bone loss, reduced fertility, difficulty with weight maintenance, damage to the lymphatic system, heightened fear of reoccurrence, and an alteration of their body image. With the loss of a breast or breasts, scars, hair shedding, complexion changes and weight gain or loss many young women feel ashamed or afraid that others will reject or feel sorry for them. As a result, survivors often develop psychological symptoms of stress, anxiety, depression, and impaired cognitive functioning. These consequences of breast cancer can be grouped into three categories, gastrointestinal, cognitive/psychological, and pain and fatigue.
Mindfulness practices have been shown to be beneficial in cancer recovery (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/cancer/) and particularly with recovery from breast cancer (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/08/29/live-more-effectively-with-breast-cancer-with-mindfulness/ and http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/09/09/beating-radiotherapy-for-cancer-with-mindfulness/). But, these practices can produce varying results depending upon the peculiarities of the patient. It would be helpful for potentiating the effectiveness of mindfulness practices applied to breast cancer survivors if markers could be found which could identify those who were likely to respond favorably to mindfulness training from those who would not. Markers in the immune system are likely candidates. Breast cancer treatment and the sequela produce considerable stress in the survivor. Stress produces a robust response in the immune system and mindfulness training has been shown to reduce stress and the immune system response. So, it would make sense that immune system markers of the stress response might be predictors of mindfulness training efficacy.
In today’s Research News article “Immune Biomarkers as Predictors of MBSR(BC) Treatment Success in Off-Treatment Breast Cancer Patients”
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4604564/
Reich and colleagues looked for immune system markers which identify mindfulness training responders among breast cancer survivors. They took blood samples for lymphocyte analysis and then trained half the women with a modified Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction program that was specifically designed to be appropriate for breast cancer (MBSR)[BC]. The second half of the women were used as a wait list control group. They found that the mindfulness training produced decreases in all three symptom clusters, gastrointestinal, cognitive/psychological, and pain and fatigue. They found that there were significant immune system markers. But, they were different for the three symptom clusters. B-lymphocytes and interferon-γ were the strongest predictors of gastrointestinal improvement, +CD4+CD8 were the strongest predictor of cognitive/psychological improvement, while lymphocytes and interleukin (IL)-4 were the strongest predictors of fatigue improvement.
These results are interesting and potentially important. They are further evidence that the stress reduction produced by mindfulness training is important in dealing with the symptoms of breast cancer survival. They also suggest that immune system markers may be significant predictors for response to mindfulness training. The fact that there were different markers for different symptom clusters, however, muddies the waters, making the markers useful for certain women who have heightened symptoms in particular areas. Regardless, it is clear that mindfulness training is an effective treatment for the symptoms present after successful treatment of breast cancer and potentially markers which can identify potential responders may be possible.
So, it is increasing clear that mindfulness is an effective treatment for residual symptoms in breast cancer survivors.
“The root of all health is in the brain. The trunk of it is in emotion. The branches and leaves are the body. The flower of health blooms when all parts work together.” ~Kurdish Saying
CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies