High-Quality Personal Relationships Improve Survival in Women With Breast Cancer

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/11/121109091158.htm

ScienceDaily (Nov. 9, 2012) — The quality of a woman's social networks -- the personal relationships that surround an individual -- appears to be just as important as the size of her networks in predicting breast cancer survival, Kaiser Permanente scientists report in the current issue of Breast Cancer Research and Treatment.

Previous research has shown that women with larger social networks -- including spouses or partners, female relatives, friends, religious and social ties, and ties to the community through volunteering -- have better breast cancer survival. This study is among the first to show that the quality of those relationships also is important to survival.

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We found that women with small social networks had a significantly higher risk of mortality than those with large networks," said Candyce H. Kroenke, ScD, MPH, a research scientist with the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Division of Research and lead author of the study.

The study found that socially isolated women were 34 percent more likely to die from breast cancer or other causes than socially integrated women. Specifically, larger social networks were "unrelated to recurrence or breast cancer mortality, (they) were associated with lower mortality from all causes," the authors wrote.

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The study found that levels of support within relationships were important risk factors for breast cancer mortality. "Women with small networks and high levels of support were not at greater risk than those with large networks, but those with small networks and low levels of support were," Kroenke said. In fact, women with small networks and low levels of support were 61 percent more likely to die from breast cancer and other causes than those with small networks and high levels of support.

"We also found that when family relationships were less supportive, community and religious ties were critical to survival. This suggests that both the quality of relationships, rather than just the size of the network, matters to survival, and that community relationships matter when relationships with friends and family are less supportive."

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