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Poor self regulation correlates with the incidence of lung cancer in smokers

Introduction: While stress has long been accepted as a risk factor for cardiovascular disease its impact on the development of lung cancer (LC) is not clear. Recent studies suggest that stress neurotransmitters promote malignant cell growth. Self regulation is the ability to adapt to stressful situations and can be measured with the 16-item self regulation (SR) questionnaire. Aims and Objectives: To find out whether there is a correlation between SR, smoking and the occurrence of LC. Methods: In this prospective cross-sectional study at Bergmannsheil University Hospital we included patients who were given a thoracic CT scan for any reason. All patients had to be at least 40 years of age and could not have had a previous diagnosis of lung cancer. They were interviewed with the SR questionnaire before they were informed about the results of their CT scan. Later, the results of the CT scan and the discharge diagnosis were recorded and a logistic regression model was fitted to the data. Results: 240 patients were included (87 female). The majority (197, 82%) showed a good ability for SR while 43 patients (18%) showed a poor ability for SR. 72 patients (30%) were smokers (S). 29 (12%) patients were diagnosed with LC (11 female). Of these, 16 (55.2%) showed poor SR. The probability of S with poor SR to be diagnosed with LC was 57% while that of a S with good SR was 8.7%. The odds ratio (OR) to develop LC for poor SR vs good SR was 1.94 (95%-CI 1.04-3.61, p Conclusions: These data show a significant correlation between poor self regulation and the occurrence of lung cancer in smokers suggesting the use of SR questionnaires to identify high-risk groups.