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. 2020 Jun 20:9:9-13.
doi: 10.1016/j.ibror.2020.06.001. eCollection 2020 Dec.

Might anxiety disorders promote head and neck cancer development?

Marcela Gonçalves de Souza  1 , Emisael Stênio Batista Gomes  1 , Lorena Barbosa Costa  1 , Amanda Dias Silva Andrade  1 , Sabrina Ferreira de Jesus  1 , Daniela Paola Santos de Paula  1 , Rogério Gonçalves da Rocha  1 , Sérgio Henrique Sousa Santos  2 , Alfredo Maurício Batista de Paula  1 , Lucyana Conceição Farias  1 , André Luiz Sena Guimaraes  1
Affiliations

Might anxiety disorders promote head and neck cancer development?

Marcela Gonçalves de Souza et al. IBRO Rep. .

Abstract

Cancer patients present a higher risk of experiencing anxiety disorders (AD). However, it is not clear if AD might be associated with cancer development. Thus, our study aimed to evaluate if AD might be related to head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) development. The combination of an applied animal basic study and a retrospective diagnostic case and control study in patients was performed. As a result, we obtained that stress reduced the locomotor activity of the animals in the group stress and stress + 4NqO (p < 0.0001). The stress showed no influence on the progression of neoplasia in mice. In the same way, the case group did not present differences in anxiety scores in comparison to control. Moreover, no association between HNSCC staging and anxiety scores was observed. In conclusion, our in vivo findings in humans and animals have shown that there is no relationship between AD and oral squamous cell carcinoma.

Keywords: 4NqO, 4-nitroquinoline-1-oxide; AD, anxiety disorders; Anxiety; BAI, Beck Anxiety Inventory; Freezing reaction; HNSCC, head and neck squamous cell carcinoma; Neoplasm; RT, radiotherapy; Stress disorders; UV, ultraviolet.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Animal study design scheme. The four groups are represented green for the water; red represents 4NqO, and yellow represents the CFS. Each square represents one week.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Conditioned fear stress reduced locomotor activity. Number of movements were quantified by ImageJ software, breathing and reflex expression were not considered.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Stress from conditioned fear and histological analysis.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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