Joe Paterno has died. When, in the context of the sex abuse scandal at Penn State, he came to the attention of the media and appeared on the TV screen, he did not look well. On the day he died he was reported to have “lost his battle against lung cancer”. It is probably no coincidence that he died when he did, given the massive stress that the events at Penn State must have placed on him. Stress and medical illness, and, in particular, stress and cancer can be and often are a deadly combination.
Elizabeth Edwards is another person that I think of in this context. Here is a press clipping from the Today Show that alludes to the stress of events surrounding the separation from her husband John, a one-time presidential hopeful.
“John Edwards, from whom Elizabeth Edwards separated last year after he acknowledged fathering a child with a former aide to his unsuccessful vice presidential campaign, was with his wife and their three children: Cate, 28; Emma Claire, 12;and Jack, 10. During an appearance on TODAY last year, Elizabeth Edwards said that while it was difficult not to be able to “lean” on the man she once called “my rock,” she thought it was important to not shut him out”.
All this reminds me of a patient that I treated many years ago when I was still in family practice. She had been followed by her oncologist following a mastectomy for breast cancer. She had had her check-ups regularly and had been clear since the original surgery. One day she came to see me because she was not feeling well, had been coughing and losing weight. She also felt depressed and anxious because her husband of many years had left her for another woman several months earlier. I sent her for lab testing. A chest X-ray which had also been clear a year earlier had undergone dramatic changes, showing numerous small spots, like a blizzard. These spots showed that her cancer had been unleashed and had spread to her lungs. It killed her several months later. Could these histories of stress and negative outcomes for cancer patients be mere coincidences?
I’m inclined to say “no”…