title: The relation of cancer-prone personality to exceptional recovery from cancer: a preliminary study.
abstract: An exceptional cancer-recovered group (n = 7) was compared with 2 other recovered groups: a non-exceptional cancer-recovered group (n = 27), and a non-exceptional heart disease (HD)-recovered group (n = 31). In support of the hypothesis that mitigation of a cancer-prone personality is associated with very unusual recoveries from cancer, the exceptional cancer group reported a greater prevalence of attributes of a cancer-prone personality before diagnosis and a greater decrease in these attributes from before diagnosis to after recovery than the other groups reported. Both cancer groups reported greater stress from life events within the 2-year period preceding diagnosis, particularly for loss (or threatened loss) of a close relationship, than the HD group reported. The high internal-consistency reliability of a Cancer-prone Personality Inventory (CPPI) and its discrimination of the 2 cancer groups from the HD group make it a promising measure of a cancer-prone personality.
authors.affiliation: Veterans Affairs Long Beach Healthcare System, Long Beach, California, USA.
authors.forename: Lori S
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Katz
authors.forename: Seymour
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Epstein
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006117:Grief; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019222:Mind-Body Relations, Metaphysical; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology*; D010551:Personality; D010555:Personality Inventory; D013315:Stress, Psychological