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This is almost impossible to prove in a trial which is probably why it is not one of the questions we answer at the doctors office for putting us in high risk. I've answered questions about family history alcohol use whether I've had any pregnancies and even age of first menstruation but never anything related to a stressful lifestyle. I've read about a view that people under stress make lifestyle choices that could potentially put them at a higher risk such as through excessive alcohol consumption or smoking but that seemed a little silly to me as this really is not representative of our population here on BC org. In any case this is not something that can be proven or disproven easily with a scientific trial.

Here is what I also know and think: as mentioned in previous posts cancer cells exist in everyone's body but the immune system takes care of them. Something went wrong in each of us where our bodies could not stop this and eventually tumors were formed. This also puts us at high risk for the same thing reoccurring regarding rogue cancer cells that may have remained in our bodies after treatment from our existing tumors or even completely new ones. So it only makes sense for us to take better care of ourselves, know when we are tired and give our bodies a rest physically and emotionally. It cannot be purely stress but stress could very well be a factor that depressed our bodies' defense mechanism. I watched a documentary (old one I think) on stress on netflix and it's pretty scary what it can do. I don't believe you need to have a traumatic event for stress that depresses the immune system necessarily, this documentary showed that chronic stress due to multitasking is in fact one of the biggest contributors to stress and premature aging internally. I don't know about you girls but I multitask every day, in fact it is one of the performance indicators for many office jobs today and I can say that I am a high performer in that regard. Our bodies probably gave warning signs before one way or the other if we were under stress that affected out immune system to the point where it could be a factor. I have three aunts that had breast cancer (and have survived by the way) and each had lichen skin disease which is thought to be related to issues with the immune system, in the years before they formed breast tumors. I did not have this but it's interesting to me.

Long story short, think stress is a factor but does not have to be a single traumatic event in my opinion, and we should all be watching our bodies carefully to see if we show any signs unrelated to cancer that could indicate our body has reached a limit. I don't mean to say we brought this upon ourselves at alland it could very well be dumb luck that our defense mechanisms did not function as well as others. All I am saying is that as this is not going to be proven one way or the other, it makes sense we try to be aware about this going forward and play it safer. Many of us don't have the ability to make drastic changes in our lifestyle, but I guess we can give it a try to take a break when we see signals. Surely can't be bad right?