TABLE OF CONTENTS

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Table of Contents Introduction Discussion Conclusion References

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INTRODUCTION This topic is about the relationship of stress, immune system and cancer cells. Here, we briefly introduce all these three factors. Stress is your body's way of responding to any kind of demand. That pressure is not only about whats happening around us, but often also about demands we place on ourselves. It can be caused by both good and bad experiences. When people feel stressed by something going on around them, their bodies react by releasing chemicals into the blood. Stress will make people more susceptible to diseases and impairs the function of the immune system1. Immune system is a system of biological structures and processes within an organism that protects against foreign bodies (antigens), such as bacteria, viruses and cancerous cells2. Cancerous cells are cells that have achieved a sort of immortality. They usually start from a series of mutation which cause them to increasingly abnormal. They can be either inherited or often caused by carcinogens in our environment. The ability of the cancerous cells to grow is different from normal cell. They tend to invade nearby tissues and spread their cells to other regions of the body

Koolhaas JM, Bohus B. Animal models of stress and immunity. In:

Leonard BE, Miller K (eds). Stress, the immune system and psychiatry. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 1996: 7083, Sklar LS, Anisman H. Stress and coping factors influence tumor growth. Science 1979; 205:513515.
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McLeod, S. A. (2010). Stress and the Immune System.

DISCUSSIONS What is the psychological stress? Psychological stress describes what people feel when they are under mental, physical or emotional pressure. Although it is normal to experience some psychological stress from time to time, people who experience high level of physiological stress or who experience it repeatedly over a long period of the may develop health problem such as physically or mentally.

How does the body response during stress? Body are responding to the physical and the internal stimulus or stress by releasing stress hormon. Hormon like epinephrine and norepinephrine will increased the blood pressure, speed the heart rate and raise the blood sugar level. According to the Lutgendorf (2011) stated that, people who

experience intense and long term such as stress can have digestive problem , fertility problems, urinary problem, and weakened immune system(p.250). It is undeniable that stress triggers the problem in human. People who experience chronic stress are also more prone to viral infections such as the flu or common cold and to have headaches, sleep trouble, depression and anxiety (Mc Donald PG, Anthoni MH, 2005).

What causes of stress? There are many things can lead to stress in our daily life. Professor Tian Xu (2010), a geneticist at Yale University stated that, A lot of the different condition can trigger stress physical stress, emotional stress, infections, inflammation-all these things. The physical stress (such as fear of something dangerous) lead to emotional (such as worry over your
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family or job.) stress will affect to the immune system and cancer. These might be happen because of daily responsibilities and routine events as well as feeling like trauma or illness in themselves or their family. When people feel that they are unable to manage changes caused by cancer or normal life activities, they will be in stress. Distress had become increasing recognized as a factor that can reduce the quality of life of a cancer patient. In addition, as mentioned by Buckingam, Gillies, and Cowell, depress with result of examination and a lot of assignments and tutorials can lead to various immune scales including the numbers of helper and suppressor of cytotoxic T cells, lymphocytes response to mitogen, natural killer (NK) cell activity. (1997).Without we realise, stress will lead to depression and emotional disturbance then will trigger cancer cell to develop in our body.

Can stress causes cancer? Various researchers have tried to reveal the mystery and chemistry of cancer, but they have not yet succeeded in finding out what exactly causes cancer. Various studies were conducted and are still being conducted hoping that the reports would shed more light on the connection between stress and cancer. Though no study report establishes a direct cause-and-effect relationship between stress and cancer, many studies show that excessive stress may increase the risk of developing cancer, just as it increases the risk of heart attack, high blood pressure, obesity, and infertility. In addition, psychological and physiological showed the linked between each other. According to the Reiche, Nunes and Morimoto (2004), the link between the psychological and physiological features of the cancer risk and progression have been studied through psychoneuroimmunology. The persistent activation of the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis in the chronic, stress response and contributes to the development and progression of some types of cancer. (p.617).
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Physiological response to stress Stress experience include physical stressors such as pathogens and toxin and psychological stressor such as major events ,trauma ,abuse and environment factors Stress experiment suggest that the plasma concentration of epinephrine is inversely related to specific immune function of lymphocytes and monocytes. Catecholamine and opiates are reported to be immunosuppressive. In addition, many studies are reported corticosteroids, which are found in high concentration during stress have important immunosuppressive effects on the function of lymphocytes and macrophage. It also might be affect their circulation patterns. Corticosteroids also decrease the production of the many cytokines and mediators of inflammation, and decrease the effect of some inflammatory molecule on various target cells. Most immune system cells are white blood cells, of which there are many types. Lymphocytes are one type of white blood cell, and two major classes of lymphocytes are T cells and B cells. T cells are critical immune system cells that help to destroy infected cells and coordinate the overall immune response. There are two main groups of T cell. They are cytoxin (Tc), it is CD8 cells.TC recognizes and destroyed cells with foreign antibody virus infected cell, cancer cell and foreign tissue graft. Then the second type of T cell is T helper (Th) cell. Th is CD4 cell. It regulate cell secrete cytokinesis that activate the B cell and macrophages. T cell and APCs (antigen-presenting cells) such as dendritic and macrophage are responsible for cell-mediated immunity. Destroys cells infected with virus, altered cells (e.g. cancer cells) and cell of foreign grafts. T helper (Th) cell is activated by specific foreign antigen-MHC
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complex

presented

by

an

APC.

Activated Th cell increase in size and divides by mitosis. Once activated, a Th cell gives rise to a clone of active Th cell and memory cells. Active Th cells release cytokines that act on Tc cells. Cytotoxic T cells are activated by foreign antigen with class 1 MHC molecules on the infected cell surface. Activated Tc increase in size and divide. Clones of competent Tc cells are produced. The Tc secretes perfonis and granzyme that perforate the plasma membrane of the target cell and induced it to kill itself by apoptosis.

How to cope and prevent from the psychological stress? Emotional and social support from parents, family and friends can help patients learn to cope with psychological stress. Such support can reduce level of depression, anxiety, and diseases among patients. In addition, social supports are needed for group setting. Then, the recommended approaches to patient are training in relaxation, meditation and stress management. They also can attend counselling and talk therapy. Medication for depression are also good to relief their hard condition. After that, the important thing that patient recommended to do is exercising. It is undeniable that exercise plays the important role in human life because it can help people release their tension. Based on Islamic perspective, to reduce stress we have several ways, one of them is by taking ablution. As we know, water can give us

positive aura and calmness for our mind. In one Hadith Sunnan of Abu Dawood, narrated Atiyyah As-Sadi, R.A. Anger come from the devil, the devil was created of fire, and fire is extinguish only with water; so when one of you become angry, he should perform ablution. After that, we also encouraged to reciting Al-Quran whenever we have a problem or having stress. If we recognized, there are so many ayyah talk about calmness, patients and peaceful such as: And We will sure test you with something of fear and hunger and a loss of wealth and lives and fruits, but give good tidings to the patient (2:155). Angry is one of the factors that lead to stress, in one Hadith Sunnan of Abu Dawood, narrated Abu Dhar, R.A. when one of you become angry while standing, he should sit down. If the anger leaves him, well and good; otherwise he should lie down. As a Muslim, we need to remember Allah at all time. For example is 'zikrullah'. This is one of the best ways to reduce stress. At least, whenever we have problem, we will think positively and accept the entire problem as our test in the world, and do believe that Allah will guaranteed us reward and Jannah. Other than that, fasting is also one of the good ways to train us to be more patient. Furthermore, solah also can lead us to be a good time management and disciplined. If we not train ourselves to be better, the possibilities to having stress are higher. It shows in Al-Quran, in Surah AlBaqarah (2:277), Indeed, those who believe and do righteous deeds and establish prayer and give zakah will have their reward with their Lord, and there will be no fear concerning them, nor will they grieve.

CONCLUSION There are two kind of stress which is psychological and physiological stress. For psychological stress alone, there has not been found to cause cancer, but psychological stress that lasts a long time may affect a persons overall health and ability to cope with cancer. Same as physiological stress, many researches has been done but from our findings, none of the research state that stress can cause cancer cell. However there are studies done on human and animals that show stress may result in impairment of our immune system to give response and might lead to initiation and progression of some cancer cells.2 Therefore, we conclude that, stress can cause cancer. This is only if the stress is sustained in a longer term. For short-term stress, it may not cause cancer but may lead to early stage development of cancer cells. So, people who are better able to cope with stress have a better quality of life while they are being treated for cancer, but they do not necessarily live longer. After all, there are many ways to cure stress as stated in the discussion. Stress can be good to our body sometimes but always keep in mind that it also could give us the bad impacts if it is in a long period of time. Therefore, always keep yourself in calmness and peacefulness. As a solution to this matter, we can reduce the effect of psychological stress through social support, including the presence of a social network or psychological intervention. This has been shown to increase survival time and decrease the rate of metastasis.2 Thus, by sharing the cause of stress with our beloved one, we can reduce the stress. It is also another way to avoid triggering the cancer cells. Bear in mind that by remembering Allahs love toward us and keep on sharing our problem with Allah are the best way to reduce stress.

REFERENCES

1.

Agarwal SK, Marchall GD Jr, Glucocorticoid induce type 1/type 2 cytokine alteration in humans a model for stress related immune dysfunction (1998);18:1059-68.

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Edna Maria Vissoci Reiche, Sandra Odebrecht Vargas Nunes, Helena Kaminami Morimoto, The Lancet Oncology Vol.5, 2004: 617-624

3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immune_system http://lungcancer.about.com/od/Biology-of-Cancer/a/CancerCells.htm http://quran.com http://www.simplypsychology.org/stress-immune.html Julia C. Buckingham, Glenda E. Gillies, Anne-Mane Cowell (1997), Stress Hormones and The Immune System, 374. Koolhaas JM, Bohus B. Animal models of stress and immunity. In: Leonard BE, Miller K (eds). Stress, the immune system and psychiatry. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 1996: 7083.

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Lauren Sompayras (2004), How Cancer Works; 1:85-86. associated with elevated tumor norepinephrine in ovarian carcinoma patients. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity 2011; 25(2):250-255.

10. Lutgendorf SK, Sood AK, Anderson B, et al. Social isolation is

11. Mc Donald PG, Antomi MH, Lutgendorf SK, et. al. A biobehavioral perspective of tumor biology. Discovery Medicine 2005;5(30):520-526. 12. McLeod, S. A. (2010). Stress and the Immune System. 13. Michael P. Everson, Susan Kotler and Warren D. Blackburn (2006), Neuroendocrine immune basis of the rheumanic diseases. Stress and Immune Dysfunction, 876, 413-418. 14. muttaqun.com/anger.html
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15. Richard Alleyne, Science Correspondent (2004). Stress could be trigger for some cancers. 16. Sklar LS, Anisman H. Stress and coping factors influence tumor growth. Science 1979; 205: 513515. 17. www.mtstcil.org/skills/stress-definition-1.html

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