Once and for all, let’s put to rest this ridiculous urban legend about cancer

Can you imagine anything more disheartening than to have cancer and be told that you brought it upon yourself due to your own personality traits?

Well you can forget everything you’ve ever heard about the so-called “cancer personality.”

This concept has been around for a long time, but it didn’t really emerge in the popular culture until the 1980s when a team of European researchers reported that certain personality traits increased cancer risk.

Later research showed inconsistencies and possible manipulated data in the European studies, but the damage was done, and like an urban legend that just won’t die, many people still talk about this myth as if it’s backed up with respectable research.

Don’t believe a word of it.

Several years ago, Japanese researchers concluded a seven-year study that examined more than 30,000 subjects. Results showed no link at all between any type of cancer and any personality trait.

New research from the Danish Cancer Society confirms those results. And this new trial had twice as many subjects as the Japanese study.

In other words: be yourself. And if you do have cancer, don’t let anyone tell you that some aspect of your personality is the root of your disease.

Sources:
“Personality Not Linked to Cancer Risk of Prognosis” Amy Norton, Reuters Health,  8/13/10, reutershealth.com