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Letter

Nature Medicine 12, 939–944 (1 August 2006) | doi:10.1038/nm1447

Chronic stress promotes tumor growth and angiogenesis in a mouse model of ovarian carcinoma

Premal H Thaker , Liz Y Han , Aparna A Kamat , Jesusa M Arevalo , Rie Takahashi , Chunhua Lu , Nicholas B Jennings , Guillermo Armaiz-Pena , James A Bankson , Murali Ravoori , William M Merritt , Yvonne G Lin , Lingegowda S Mangala , Tae Jin Kim , Robert L Coleman , Charles N Landen , Yang Li , Edward Felix , Angela M Sanguino , Robert A Newman , Mary Lloyd , David M Gershenson , Vikas Kundra , Gabriel Lopez-Berestein , Susan K Lutgendorf , Steven W Cole & Anil K Sood

Stress can alter immunological, neurochemical and endocrinological functions, but its role in cancer progression is not well understood. Here, we show that chronic behavioral stress results in higher levels of tissue catecholamines, greater tumor burden and more invasive growth of ovarian carcinoma cells in an orthotopic mouse model.