Waiting Period After Breast Biopsy Triggers High Stress Hormone Levels, Study Finds

Main Category: Breast Cancer
Also Included In: Anxiety / Stress
Article Date: 26 Feb 2009 - 3:00 PDT

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Women who are waiting for the results of a breast biopsy have stress hormone levels equivalent to those of women who are diagnosed with breast cancer, according to a study published recently in the journal Radiology, the New York Times reports.

For the study, researchers from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School followed 126 women through the waiting period after a breast biopsy, monitoring their levels of the stress hormone cortisol. The researchers reported that although the average wait time for results of a biopsy was about two-and-a-half days, some women had to wait five days or longer. The study found that after five days, 37 women were told their test results were benign, 16 women were told they had cancer and 73 women had not received their results. Most of the women who had not received their results by the fifth day were not given an explanation for the delay, according to the study. Cortisol levels of the women who had not received results were "essentially indistinguishable" from the levels found in women who were diagnosed with breast cancer, the study found. In addition, women who were still waiting for results also had significantly higher cortisol levels than the women who received benign test results.

According to Elvira Lang, associate professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School and lead author of the study, the findings are concerning because cortisol levels can influence wound healing and immune response that could raise a woman's health risk if she ultimately needed cancer treatment. Lang added that the stress women experienced during the waiting period was detrimental to their overall quality of life. "If you talk to any woman who has had to wait for results, she will tell you it's a horrible roller coaster," Lang said, adding, "Even when patients hear they have a cancer, they can start doing something. But if you hang in there for five days and you still don’t know what direction it goes, it's just very stressful."

Lang added that the study should increase awareness about the need for hospitals to shorten the waiting periods for test results, improve communication with patients waiting for results and possibly offer psychological services to women during the waiting period. "We have to work much faster to get results to women," Lang said, adding, "You want to keep stressors as profound as this as short as possible." The study was financed by the Department of Defense breast cancer research program. According to the Times, Lang noted a financial interest in a consulting firm that provides health workers with training on how to improve patient communication (Parker-Pope, New York Times, 2/25).

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