Emotional Factor in the Etiology & Pathogeny of Cancer

Abstract

Since Galen (129-216 BC), in his book De Tumoribus noted that “melancholic” women were more prone to cancer than others [1,2], there have been generated suspicions of the participation of the emotional in the origin of that disease. Especially that clinical practice points to a presence of suffering that is not always is clear if it is cause or consequence. Cooper [3], in his book Stress and Cancer, says that in 1601 cancer was defined as a ...swelling or sore from melancholy blood, around which the veins appear a black or dark color, extending as the claws of a crab. Walshe, in his book The Nature and Treatment of Cancer, published in 1846, attributes this disease to mental misery, loss, and changes in mood.