Blog entry by Evan Mckenna
Anyone in the world
In
their study, the stressed
mice showed more tumor growth and spread to the lungs than
mice not placed under stressful conditions, such as being under
constant bright light, sitting in a tilted cage,
polkadot chocolate bar hearing loud noise, and being deprived
of food.
The stress also caused a reduction in the number of immune cells, such as T cells and natural killer (NK) cells, while increasing the number of neutrophils traveling from the bloodstream and entering the tumors.
A team at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York found chronic stress leads to the formation of sticky webs of white blood cells called neutrophils, which make it easier for cancer cells to invade tissues.